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INDIANA
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.
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