Indiana

Indiana, also known as the Hoosier State, was admitted into the Union on December 11, 1816, the nineteenth state to join. A small state, it ranks thirty-eighth in size among the fifty states and measures 36,185 square miles (93,719 square kilometers). Indiana is in the eastern north-central region of the United States and is bordered by Ohio , Kentucky , Illinois , Michigan , and Lake Michigan.

French explorers first visited Indiana in the 1670s. There they found Native Americans, probably the Miami and Potawatomi tribes. By 1765, Indiana was controlled by the English. The first town plotted was Clarksville, in 1784.

In 1816, Thomas Lincoln moved from Kentucky to Indiana, and his son, future U.S. president Abraham Lincoln (1809–1965; served 1861–65), spent his life there from the age of seven until he was twenty-one. Although Indiana was not the site of any battles during the American Civil War (1861–65), it did send some two hundred thousand soldiers off to fight. After the war, industry exploded in Indiana with the discovery of natural gas in 1886.

As America became enamored of the automobile, a racetrack for testing cars was built outside Indianapolis in 1908, and the now-famous 500-mile (805-kilometer) race on Memorial Day weekend, the Indianapolis 500, began three years later. U.S. Steel built a plant and a city to house its workers. This city is called Gary, and it grew rapidly with the onset of World War I (1914–18).

Indiana's population is primarily white (86.1 percent), with another 8.6 percent African American and 1.2 percent Asian. The capital city of Indianapolis is the largest, with a population of nearly eight hundred thousand.

The state's economy is divided between industry and agriculture, and it is a leader in both. In addition to providing natural resources such as coal, gas, and stone, Indiana is the site of heavy industrialization, especially steel. Eighty percent of the state's farmers live on their farms, while more than 55 percent have another occupation outside of farming.

The Indianapolis 500 is the state's biggest yearly sporting event, and it attracts crowds of over three hundred thousand spectators. No other sporting event in the world is attended by as many people. Other than auto racing, Indiana is known for its amateur basketball—both high school and college. The Fighting Irish football team from the University of Notre Dame competes as an independent team and has won twelve bowl games.