Thanks to an early nineteenth-century influx of
northward migrants, much of INDIANA still displays
vestiges of the easygoing South. Among these early settlers was
the family of Abraham Lincoln, who set up home near the present
village of Santa Claus in 1816 and stayed for fourteen years before
moving to Illinois. Unlike the abolitionist Lincolns, many brought
slaves to this new territory; Indiana allowed a system of "voluntary
servitude" to operate until 1843. At the outbreak of the
Civil War, thousands of ex-Southerners rioted against the draft,
in part expressing a concern that Indiana was every bit as subservient
to the northeast as Deep South slaves were to their masters. However,
since the 1870s, industrialization has integrated Indiana into
the regional economy. The sports-happy state is at the forefront
of the nation in automobile racing and high school basketball.
Despite some beautiful dunes and beaches, the most
lasting memories provided by Indiana's fifty-mile lakeshore
(by far the shortest of the Great Lake states) are of the grimy
steel mills and poverty-stricken neighborhoods of towns like Gary
and East Chicago . In northern Indiana, the area
in and around Elkhart and Goshen
contains one of the nation's largest Amish settlements
. The central plains are characterized by small market towns,
except for the sprawling capital, Indianapolis
, which has brightened up its downtown in recent years to the
point that it's not a bad stopover. Hilly southern Indiana, at
its most appealing in the fall, is a welcome contrast to the central
cornbelt, boasting several quaint towns such as Nashville,
Vincennes, Madison and Corydon . Thriving
Columbus exhibits a great array of contemporary architecture
for such a small city, and former resort town West Baden
Springs is restoring the elegant hotel that made it famous.
Dozens of explanations have been offered as to why
residents of the state are called " Hoosiers
"; the most believable is that its use spread from the days
of the Ohio Falls Canal construction in the 1820s, when a contractor,
Samuel Hoosier, gave employment preference to those living on
the Indiana side of the Ohio River.
