116 Fun Facts About Indiana

Which neighbor became a state in 1818, two years after Indiana?

Illinois. It had been split off from the Indiana Territory in 1809, so the two neighbors shared one territorial government before either became a state.

Which Indiana poet wrote 'Little Orphant Annie' and gave his name to Indianapolis's children's hospital?

James Whitcomb Riley. He meant the title to be 'Little Orphant Allie', after an orphan who had lived with his family, but a typesetter's slip made her Annie and he let it stand.

Which town was Indiana's first state capital, before the seat of government moved in 1825?

Corydon. The delegates who wrote the 1816 constitution escaped the June heat by working under a huge elm, and its trunk still stands in town as the Constitution Elm.

What is Indiana's state motto?

Crossroads of America. Lawmakers made it the state motto by resolution in 1937, and Indianapolis, a hub where rail lines and main roads met, claims the same phrase as its city slogan.

Which bird is Indiana's state bird?

Northern cardinal. Seven states chose it, more than any other bird, and in 1977 Amtrak named its Cardinal train for the state bird of every state then on the route.

Which flower replaced the zinnia as Indiana's state flower in 1957?

Peony. Lawmakers named no particular variety or color, so any peony counts, whether red, pink or white; the zinnia had held the title since 1931.

Which species did Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee all adopt as their official arboreal emblem?

Tulip tree. Despite its tulip-shaped blooms and the lumber trade's name for it, yellow poplar, it is neither a tulip nor a poplar: it belongs to the magnolia family.

Parke County, one of Indiana's 92, calls itself the world capital of which structures?

Covered bridges. Parke County has 31 of them; the roofs were built to keep rain and snow off the timber trusses, which is why such wooden spans can last a century or more.

Which waterway is the official state river of Indiana?

The Wabash. Indiana's river actually rises just across the Ohio line, and below the dam at Huntington it runs free for 411 miles, the longest such stretch east of the Mississippi.

What is the highest natural point in Indiana?

Hoosier Hill. The summit is a wooded rise on private farmland, and the trail to it was rebuilt in 2005 by a teenager as his Eagle Scout project.

In which county, at the state's far southwestern tip, is Indiana's lowest point?

Posey. Water runs downhill to it: the low point is the riverbank where the two rivers that trace Indiana's western and southern borders finally meet.

The first Indianapolis 500 winner replaced his riding mechanic with which device?

Rear-view mirror. In 1911 rivals protested that Ray Harroun's single-seat Marmon Wasp had nobody aboard to watch for cars coming up behind, so he mounted a mirror and was allowed to race.

Why is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway nicknamed 'the Brickyard'?

Its racing surface was first paved in brick in the fall of 1909, after the original crushed stone and tar proved deadly in the opening races; one yard of that brick still marks the finish line.

What does the winner of the Indianapolis 500 traditionally drink in victory lane?

Milk. Three-time winner Louis Meyer drank buttermilk in victory lane in the 1930s, and dairy promoters who saw their chance made sure a bottle was waiting for later winners.

How many cars make up the traditional starting grid of the Indianapolis 500?

33. They line up in eleven rows of three, where most races start two abreast, and a qualifier 'bumped' by a faster car on the final day loses the seat altogether.

Which Brazilian joined Foyt, Al Unser and Mears as a four-time Indy 500 winner in 2021?

Hélio Castroneves. Nicknamed Spider-Man for scaling the catch fence after his wins, he took his fourth in 2021, twelve years after his third.

Which TV star sang 'Back Home Again in Indiana' before nearly every Indianapolis 500 from 1972 to 2014?

Jim Nabors. Track owner Tony Hulman recognized him at the 1972 race and asked him to sing, so he performed that first time with the lyrics written on his hand.

From which city did the Colts move to Indianapolis in 1984?

Baltimore. With Maryland lawmakers moving to seize the team by eminent domain, owner Robert Irsay had fifteen Mayflower moving trucks load everything overnight and leave for Indianapolis.

Which team did the Indianapolis Colts beat in Super Bowl XLI?

Chicago Bears. Devin Hester ran the opening kickoff back for a Bears touchdown, but Peyton Manning's Colts shrugged it off to win 29-17 in steady Miami rain.

In which league did the Indiana Pacers win three championships in the early 1970s?

ABA. The Pacers were its most successful club, with titles in 1970, 1972 and 1973, and one of only four teams the NBA took in when the two leagues merged in 1976.

The Indiana Pacers' name nods to the Indianapolis 500 pace car and to which other Indiana sporting tradition?

Harness racing. A pacer is a horse that races in harness, and the founders picked the name for that tradition, a passion of one investor, as much as for the 500's pace car.

Which WNBA star was Finals MVP when the Indiana Fever won the 2012 title?

Tamika Catchings. She spent her whole 15-year career with the Fever and scored 25 in the clincher as they upset the defending champion Minnesota Lynx, who held home-court advantage.

The 1986 film Hoosiers was inspired by which tiny high school's 1954 state basketball title?

Milan. With only 161 students, it beat a city school ten times its size after Bobby Plump held the ball for minutes in the fourth quarter, then hit the winning shot in the final seconds.

Which sophomore led Indiana University to the 1981 NCAA title?

Isiah Thomas. The final went ahead only after officials learned that President Reagan, shot that afternoon, would survive; Thomas was then named Most Outstanding Player of Indiana's fourth national title.

Which Butler University arena is nicknamed 'Indiana's Basketball Cathedral'?

Hinkle Fieldhouse. The 1954 state final that later inspired a Hollywood film was played there, and three decades on the movie's championship scenes were shot on the same floor.

Which future NBA legend led Indianapolis's Crispus Attucks High School to state titles in 1955 and 1956?

Oscar Robertson. His 1955 Tigers brought Indianapolis its first state title, yet after the usual parade the players were steered to a park away from downtown to celebrate.

Larry Bird grew up in which Indiana town?

French Lick. It gave him his nickname, 'the Hick from French Lick'; he found Indiana University overwhelming, went home, quit a local junior college too, and only then started over at Indiana State.

Which Indiana university is nicknamed the 'Cradle of Astronauts'?

Purdue. Neil Armstrong, the first person on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, the last, both studied there, at a school that had earlier helped pay for the plane in which Amelia Earhart vanished.

Which Olympic swimming champion trained at Indiana University under coach Doc Counsilman?

Mark Spitz. Unhappy with his 1968 Games, he moved to Indiana to train under Counsilman, a choice he called the biggest decision of his life, and won seven golds in Munich in 1972.

Which Notre Dame football coach gave the famous 'Win one for the Gipper' speech?

Knute Rockne. He used the plea, which he said star George Gipp made on his deathbed, to rally Notre Dame to a 12-6 upset of unbeaten Army in 1928; Ronald Reagan later played Gipp on film.

The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe pitted Indiana's territorial governor against a confederacy led by which Native leader?

Tecumseh was away recruiting allies, so his brother Tenskwatawa, 'The Prophet', led the warriors.

Which city, founded as a French fur-trading post in 1732, is Indiana's oldest continuously inhabited European settlement?

Vincennes. In February 1779 George Rogers Clark's men waded for days through flooded country, at times shoulder-deep, to surprise the British garrison there and force its surrender.

Jonathan Jennings, elected Indiana's first governor in 1816 at age 32, built his career opposing what in the territory?

Slavery. Jennings ran for Congress under the motto 'No slavery in Indiana', then presided over the 1816 convention whose constitution banned it, weeks before voters made him governor.

Which future president grew up on a southern Indiana farm between the ages of 7 and 21?

Abraham Lincoln. His father, who had lost Kentucky farms in disputes over faulty titles, moved the family in 1816 to Indiana, where land claims were more reliable, and they stayed 14 years.

Which Confederate general's 1863 raid produced the only pitched Civil War battle fought on Indiana soil?

John Hunt Morgan. Defying orders, he ferried his cavalry over the Ohio on two seized steamboats and ransomed mills for cash; caught weeks later in Ohio, he tunneled out of the state penitentiary.

Which social reformer bought the town of New Harmony in 1825 to build a utopian community?

Robert Owen. His 'Community of Equality' quarreled itself apart within two years, yet many of the scientists and teachers who came by keelboat, the 'Boatload of Knowledge', stayed on.

Which lakeshore on Lake Michigan was renamed in 2019 to become the state's first national park?

Indiana Dunes. The campaign to save it began with a Chicago botanist's 1899 study of its plants, yet protection came only in 1966 and the national park title in 2019.

Which company founded the city of Gary, Indiana, in 1906 and named it after its chairman?

U.S. Steel. It built the city as a company town for its new mill and named it for Elbert H. Gary, the lawyer who chaired the corporation; the city has shrunk since the 1970s as steel jobs disappeared.

Indiana builds most of America's supply of which product, whose self-styled world capital is Elkhart County?

Recreational vehicles. The trade is so concentrated around Elkhart that when RV sales collapsed in the 2009 recession, the area's unemployment became one of the highest in the nation.

Which famous structure is faced with Indiana limestone quarried between Bloomington and Bedford?

Empire State Building. Its limestone panels give the tower its blond color, and the same Indiana stone was cut again to rebuild the Pentagon after the September 11 attack.

In which Indiana city was the contour Coca-Cola bottle designed in 1915?

Terre Haute. By Coca-Cola's own account, designers at the city's Root Glass Company went to the library for ideas and came back with a picture of a ribbed cocoa pod, which is not even an ingredient.

Which pharmaceutical giant was founded in Indianapolis in 1876?

Eli Lilly and Company. It teamed up with the Toronto scientists who discovered insulin and in 1923 began selling the first commercial insulin in the US, making a once-fatal disease treatable.

Studebaker, the wagon builder that became a car maker, was based in which Indiana city?

South Bend. The Studebaker brothers built wagons there for the Union Army, and when the firm turned to cars in 1902 its first models were electric, with gasoline following two years later.

Which beauty entrepreneur moved a fast-growing hair-care business to Indianapolis in 1910?

Madam C.J. Walker. Orphaned at seven, widowed at 20 and for years a laundress, she chose Indianapolis for its rail links to her customers; the Walker Building she planned opened there in 1927.

A TV special places Garfield the cat in which Indiana city, where creator Jim Davis went to college?

Muncie. The comic strip almost never names its setting, but a 1988 birthday special did; Davis studied art and business at Ball State there and later came back to teach.

Which pop star was born in Gary, Indiana, in 1958?

Michael Jackson. He was the eighth of ten children in a two-bedroom house, where his father, a former guitarist in a local band, drilled five of his sons into the Jackson 5.

Which Hollywood star was born in Marion, Indiana, in 1931 and raised on a farm in nearby Fairmount?

James Dean. He died in a car crash at 24 with only one of his three major films released; Rebel Without a Cause and Giant reached cinemas after his death.

Which composer of 'Anything Goes' was born in Peru, Indiana, in 1891?

Cole Porter. His mother later changed his recorded birth year from 1891 to 1893, so that the songs he wrote as a boy would look even more precocious.

Which author of Slaughterhouse-Five was born and raised in Indianapolis?

Kurt Vonnegut. Captured in World War II, he survived the bombing of Dresden in a meat locker under the slaughterhouse where he was held, the experience he turned into the novel.

Which 23rd U.S. president made his political career in Indianapolis?

Benjamin Harrison. A grandson of the ninth president, he ran his 1888 campaign from his front porch, speaking to delegations who came to Indianapolis, and won despite losing the popular vote.

Which vice president was born in Columbus, Indiana, and served as the state's 50th governor?

Mike Pence. After losing two races for Congress he became a talk-radio host, and the syndicated Mike Pence Show kept his name before Indiana voters until he ran again in 2000 and won.

Ryan White, barred from school over his AIDS diagnosis, was from which Indiana city?

Kokomo. After a court fight to return to class there, his family moved to Cicero, where the school welcomed him, and Congress passed the Ryan White CARE Act four months after his death in 1990.

Which theme park in the town of Santa Claus, Indiana, opened in 1946 as Santa Claus Land?

Holiday World. A retired industrialist built it after seeing children arrive in a town named for Santa and find no Santa there; volunteer 'elves' still answer thousands of letters sent to the town's post office.

Which unofficial state pie of Indiana is a simple custard traditionally made without eggs?

Sugar cream pie. Because it needs no eggs or fruit, only pantry staples like cream, sugar and flour, cooks could bake it when supplies ran low, which earned it the nickname desperation pie.

Which famous brand did Indianapolis's Taggart Baking Company launch in 1921?

Wonder Bread. A Taggart executive took the name, and the red, yellow and blue balloons on its wrapper, from the wonder he felt watching a balloon race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

The 1979 film Breaking Away dramatizes which annual bicycle race at Indiana University?

Little 500. An Indiana University official founded it in 1951 as a pedal-powered answer to the Indianapolis 500, and after the film a real team called the Cutters formed and became a regular winner.

Which Indiana resort hotel had the largest free-spanning dome in the world from 1902 to 1913?

West Baden Springs. After the Depression emptied it, the owner gave the hotel to the Jesuits in 1934; they stripped out its luxuries and ran it as a seminary for thirty years, and it reopened as a hotel in 2007.

Which Indianapolis suburb is famous for building well over 100 roundabouts?

Carmel. It has been swapping traffic lights for roundabouts since the late 1990s, a twist for a town that installed one of the country's first automatic traffic signals back in 1924.

The Elkhart-LaGrange settlement in northern Indiana is one of the largest U.S. communities of which religious group?

Amish. The settlement dates to 1841, and not all Indiana Amish share its speech: the Swiss Amish around Berne speak a Bernese dialect instead of Pennsylvania Dutch.

Which songwriter, born in Bloomington, Indiana, composed 'Stardust' and 'Georgia on My Mind'?

Hoagy Carmichael. He trained as a lawyer at Indiana University, failed the Florida bar exam, came home in 1927 and that October recorded 'Star Dust' at a small studio in Richmond, Indiana.

Which southern Indiana show cave was discovered by two children in 1883?

Marengo. By the cave's own account, 15-year-old Blanche Hiestand overheard schoolboys planning to explore a sinkhole and beat them to it with her brother; candlelight tours began within days.

Which rock singer from Seymour, Indiana, helped found the Farm Aid benefit concerts?

John Mellencamp launched Farm Aid with Willie Nelson and Neil Young after Bob Dylan said from the Live Aid stage that a little of the money should go to American farmers who owed the banks.

Which late-night host began as an Indianapolis TV weatherman who congratulated a tropical storm on becoming a hurricane?

David Letterman reportedly upset his bosses with the joke. In 1975 he gave up Indianapolis television for Los Angeles, where he started over as a comedy writer and stand-up.

Which military branch runs Crane, a 100-square-mile base in southern Indiana, far from any ocean?

Navy planners wanted an ammunition depot deep inland when they opened the base in 1941: far enough from the eastern seaboard to reduce the danger of enemy air attack.

Which ancestry do more Indiana residents report than any other?

German heritage ran deep enough that Indianapolis had a grand clubhouse named Das Deutsche Haus, until anti-German feeling during World War I pushed it to rename itself the Athenaeum.

Which fast-food founder, born near Henryville, Indiana, only hit the road selling franchises in his sixties?

Colonel Sanders was Indiana-born, not a Kentuckian. In his mid-sixties, with a new highway about to bypass his Kentucky restaurant, he sold up and drove from diner to diner cooking his chicken for the owners.

In 1897, Indiana's House unanimously passed a bill that would in effect have changed what?

The value of pi came out at 3.2 on the usual reading of an amateur mathematician's circle-squaring bill. A visiting professor warned the senators, who shelved it for good.

Which roadside police device did Indiana State Police captain Robert Borkenstein invent in 1954?

Breathalyzer tests replaced the earlier Drunkometer, itself devised at Indiana University's medical school, and the brand name became the everyday word for any breath-alcohol tester.

Which toothpaste brand grew out of fluoride research at Indiana University in the 1950s?

Crest launched with a stannous fluoride formula from Joseph Muhler's Indiana University team, and Procter & Gamble's patent royalties paid for a new dental research institute at the university.

Which future home run king signed his first professional contract with the Indianapolis Clowns?

Hank Aaron earned $200 a month as the Clowns' shortstop and cleanup hitter, and after about three months the Boston Braves bought him for $10,000.

Which sitcom is set in the fictional town of Pawnee, Indiana?

Parks and Recreation ran for seven seasons, and in the sixth Pawnee swallowed its snobbish neighbor Eagleton after that town went bankrupt.

Which Netflix series sends 1980s kids up against monsters in the fictional town of Hawkins, Indiana?

Stranger Things was shot around Atlanta, Georgia, not in Indiana: the producers went south when a planned Long Island shoot looked too cold for November.

Which festive film classic is set in Hohman, a fictional Indiana town modeled on Hammond?

A Christmas Story draws on narrator Jean Shepherd's Hammond boyhood, and the city now displays a statue of the boy whose tongue freezes to a flagpole.

The Reno Gang pulled off which crime near Seymour, Indiana, in 1866, a first in peacetime America?

A train robbery: three gang members boarded at the Seymour depot, broke open one safe and pushed a larger one off the moving cars to waiting accomplices.

Which Indiana sandwich, said to have begun at Nick's Kitchen in Huntington, dwarfs its bun?

Pork tenderloin gets its width from a meat mallet: the loin is hammered thin, crumbed and fried like a Wiener schnitzel, so the cutlet overhangs the roll on every side.

Which fizzing remedy for upset stomachs was invented by Miles Laboratories of Elkhart, Indiana?

Alka-Seltzer went on sale in 1931, and its Elkhart maker went on to invent One-A-Day vitamins before Bayer bought the company.

Which Indiana University basketball coach once threw a chair across the court during a game?

Bob Knight's temper came with trophies: his Hoosiers won NCAA championships in 1976, 1981 and 1987, and the 1975–76 team finished a perfect 32–0.

Which Indiana Pacers sharpshooter scored eight points in 8.9 seconds to stun the New York Knicks in 1995?

Reggie Miller hit a three, stole the inbounds pass and hit another to tie a playoff game the Pacers had trailed by six with 18.7 seconds left. They won 107–105.

Which quarterback, drafted first overall in 1998, has a bronze statue outside the Indianapolis Colts' stadium?

Peyton Manning got his statue in 2017, five years after the Colts released him rather than pay a $28 million bonus while holding the draft's top pick.

Which coach became the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl, with the Indianapolis Colts in 2007?

Tony Dungy won it 29–17 against a team coached by his own protégé, Lovie Smith, so a Black head coach was certain to make history that night.

Which University of Iowa guard did the Indiana Fever take with the first pick of the 2024 WNBA draft?

Caitlin Clark repaid the pick at once, winning WNBA Rookie of the Year and a place on the All-WNBA First Team in her first professional season.

Which coach, winner of ten NCAA basketball titles at UCLA, spent his teens in Martinsville, Indiana?

John Wooden led Martinsville High School to the 1927 state title as a player, and the gym there now carries his name.

Which 1993 film follows an undersized walk-on who dreams of playing football for Notre Dame?

Rudy was the first film in decades that the university let a crew shoot on campus, and it ends with teammates carrying the walk-on off the field.

Which John Green novel about two teenagers who meet at a cancer support group is set in Indianapolis?

The Fault in Our Stars kept its Indianapolis setting on screen, but the 2014 film was shot in Pittsburgh, which doubled for the city.

Which actor from The Great Escape and Bullitt was born in Beech Grove, Indiana, in 1930?

Steve McQueen was the son of a flying-circus stunt pilot, and Beech Grove's public library keeps a collection dedicated to its most famous native.

Which hard rock frontman grew up in Lafayette, Indiana, alongside future bandmate Izzy Stradlin?

Axl Rose was arrested more than 20 times in Lafayette before he left for Los Angeles, where the two childhood friends ended up in Guns N' Roses.

Popcorn king Orville Redenbacher and union boss Jimmy Hoffa were both born in which Indiana city?

Brazil got its name in the 1840s, when the owners of the farmland it grew on named their farm after the South American country.

Which rookie driver became the first woman to lead laps in the Indianapolis 500, in 2005?

Danica Patrick qualified and finished fourth that day, and her 2008 victory in Japan made her the first woman to win an IndyCar Series race.

Which Indianapolis 500 prize carries a sculpted silver likeness of every winner's face?

The Borg-Warner Trophy is sterling silver and weighs nearly 153 pounds, so each winner is handed a miniature replica nicknamed the Baby Borg.

The Indianapolis 500 is traditionally run on the Sunday of which American long weekend?

Memorial Day has anchored the race since 1911, when the holiday was still called Decoration Day. Only the 2020 pandemic pushed it out of May, to August.

Which billionaire Shark Tank investor graduated from Indiana University's business school in 1981?

Mark Cuban picked the school without ever visiting the campus, because its tuition was the cheapest among the top ten business schools on his list.

Which Indiana senator, heir to a Huntington newspaper family, became vice president of the United States in 1989?

Dan Quayle was 41 when George H. W. Bush made him vice president, and at 33 he had become the youngest senator Indiana had elected.

Which Indianapolis-born bank robber broke out of an Indiana jail in 1934, reputedly with a pistol carved from wood?

John Dillinger walked out during morning exercises with fifteen other inmates. A deputy insisted the gun was real, but FBI files describe a fake whittled from wood.

Which object sits at the center of Indiana's blue state flag, ringed by nineteen gold stars?

A torch stands for liberty and enlightenment, and the rays spreading from its flame represent how far their influence reaches.

Which pioneer of powered flight was born near Millville, Indiana, in 1867?

Wilbur Wright was the only one of the two flying brothers born in Indiana: Orville arrived four years later, after the family had moved to Dayton, Ohio.

Which Mercury astronaut, the second American in space, was born in Mitchell, Indiana?

Gus Grissom named his capsule Liberty Bell 7 and had a crack painted on its side as a nod to the real bell.

Which city, rather than the better-known Elkhart, is the seat of Indiana's Elkhart County?

Goshen took its name from the biblical Land of Goshen, and it was not even the first choice: the county's original seat was at Dunlap.

Which Lake County seat was nicknamed the Marriage Mill because it required no waiting period for licenses?

Crown Point won the county seat after founder Solon Robinson paid $500 for a timber courthouse, and its grander successor is fondly called the Grand Old Lady.

Which Decatur County seat is nicknamed Tree City for the tree growing from its courthouse tower?

Greensburg's tower has sprouted trees since the early 1870s. Officials feared for the roof and hired a steeplejack to pull some out, but others kept growing.

Which Brown County seat, the county's only incorporated town, is best known for its art colony?

Nashville became a painters' town in the early twentieth century, when artists led by the Impressionist T. C. Steele settled in the area.

Hamilton County's seat is not its larger suburb Fishers but which older White River city?

Noblesville was laid out in 1823 by William Conner and Josiah Polk, and one story says Polk named it for his fiancée, Lavina Noble.

Which Vanderburgh County seat, set on a sweeping meander of the Ohio River, is southern Indiana's largest city?

Evansville is nicknamed River City and the Crescent Valley for that curve in the river, and it has been the county seat since 1818.

The Ohio River city of Madison, Indiana, is the seat of which county, not Madison County?

Jefferson County's seat was Indiana's third-largest city by 1850, and 133 blocks of its downtown are now a National Historic Landmark district.

Which riverboat-casino town is the seat of Ohio County, Indiana's smallest county by area?

Rising Sun governs a county of just 87 square miles, and its riverboat casino opened in 1996 with room for 2,700 passengers.

Which Switzerland County seat was founded by Swiss settlers who planted vineyards on the Ohio River?

Vevay was named after the Swiss town of Vevey by settlers who came to grow grapes and make wine, and it still holds a Swiss Wine Festival each August.

Which Kosciusko County seat is known as the Orthopedic Capital of the World?

Warsaw earned the title after Revra DePuy began making splints there in 1895, the world's first maker of orthopedic appliances, and rivals later set up alongside.

Which Henry County seat east of Indianapolis is home to the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame?

New Castle has housed the hall since 1990, after its first home in Indianapolis closed, and the city's high school plays in the largest high school gymnasium in the world.

Which Montgomery County seat, nicknamed the Athens of Indiana, was home to Ben-Hur author Lew Wallace?

Crawfordsville preserves the general's private study as a museum and National Historic Landmark, and it lived up to its nickname as the hometown of a string of authors.

Which Dubois County seat on the Patoka River calls itself the Nation's Wood Capital for its furniture makers?

Jasper was nearly called Eleanor, after an early settler's wife, but she chose a name from a passage in the Book of Revelation instead.

Which Steuben County seat, in Indiana's far northeast corner, is home to Trine University?

Angola is the only incorporated city in a county that promotes itself by its 101 lakes, and its university was called Tri-State until 2008.

Which DeKalb County seat, nicknamed Home of the Classics, has a museum of Cord and Duesenberg cars?

Auburn gave its name to a car company that salesman E. L. Cord took over in the 1920s. He added a marque under his own name before both were discontinued in 1937.

Which Wayne County seat is called the cradle of recorded jazz for its Gennett Records studio?

Richmond's studio belonged to a piano company, and Louis Armstrong made his first recordings there in 1923 as a member of King Oliver's band.

Which Porter County seat holds a Popcorn Festival each September honoring former resident Orville Redenbacher?

Valparaiso began as Portersville and was renamed in 1837 after the Chilean port near which the county's namesake fought a battle in the War of 1812.

Which Floyd County seat on the Ohio River was Indiana's largest city before Indianapolis overtook it by 1860?

New Albany was founded in 1813 by three Scribner brothers from New York, who named it after their home state's capital. Indianapolis finally outgrew it in 1860.

Which city is the seat of Clinton County, on land three brothers donated in 1830?

Frankfort honors Frankfurt am Main, the brothers' ancestral home, and its high school teams are the Hot Dogs, a pun on the frankfurter.

Which Gibson County seat has had a Toyota assembly plant just to its south since the late 1990s?

Princeton is named for William Prince, an Irish immigrant who became a county commissioner, and the first vehicle off the nearby line was the Tundra pickup.