70 Fun Facts About Indiana

In what year did Indiana become a state?

President James Madison signed off on December 11, and Indiana came in as the 19th state.

What is the official demonym for a resident of Indiana?

Its origin is still debated, but John Finley's 1833 poem 'The Hoosier's Nest' helped make it stick.

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

The 1816 constitution named it the capital, and the delegates who wrote that constitution met there for just 19 days.

What is Indiana's state motto?

It comes from the highways, railroads and canals that converged on Indianapolis.

Which bird is Indiana's state bird?

Seven states chose it, more than any other species, and the Amtrak train that runs through them is named after it.

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

The zinnia had held the title since 1931.

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

Kentucky and Tennessee picked the same tree, the tallest in the eastern deciduous forest.

How many counties does Indiana have?

Ninety of them have their own circuit court with a judge elected to a six-year term.

Which waterway is the official state river of Indiana?

It is also the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi.

What is the highest natural point in Indiana?

It rises to just 1,257 feet in Wayne County near the Ohio line.

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

The low point sits at 320 feet above sea level in the state's far southwestern corner.

How many of Indiana's 92 counties observe Central Time rather than Eastern?

Six sit near Chicago and six near Evansville; the other 80 run on Eastern Time.

In what year did Indiana begin observing daylight saving time statewide?

Sitting on the western edge of the Eastern zone, the state had resisted the clock change for decades.

Who won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911?

He drove a Marmon Wasp fitted with what is now considered the first rear-view mirror, in place of the riding mechanic the rules expected.

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

The bricks went down in the fall of 1909; a yard-wide strip of them still marks the start-finish line.

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

Louis Meyer asked for buttermilk after his 1933 win, and a dairy tradition was born.

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

They line up in eleven rows of three.

Foyt, Al Unser Sr., Mears and Castroneves share the record for most Indy 500 wins. How many each?

Nobody has managed a fifth; Castroneves is the only one of the four still active.

What is the permanent seating capacity of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

A newspaper reporter counted every seat in 2004 and reached 257,325.

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

The team left in the middle of the night, seeding a rivalry with the Ravens who later replaced them.

Which team did the Colts beat in Super Bowl XLI, the first major pro title for an Indianapolis team?

Peyton Manning was the MVP of a rain-soaked 29-17 win in Miami.

In which league did the Indiana Pacers win all three of their championships?

They won in 1970, 1972 and 1973, then joined the NBA in the 1976 merger.

The Pacers' name refers to harness racing and to which other Indiana tradition?

The franchise began in 1967 as an original ABA member.

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

The Fever beat the Minnesota Lynx three games to one.

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

They beat Muncie Central, a school ten times their size, in the final.

How many NCAA men's basketball championships has Indiana University won?

Two came under Branch McCracken and three under Bob Knight; the 1976 team is still the last undefeated champion.

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

Finished in 1928, it was the largest basketball arena in the country until 1950 and hosted the state finals for decades.

In 1955, which Indianapolis school became the first all-Black high school to win a state basketball title?

Its star was a junior named Oscar Robertson, later the NBA's first triple-double-averaging player.

Larry Bird's nickname 'the Hick from' which Indiana town?

He briefly enrolled at Indiana University before returning home and starring for Indiana State.

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

Its alumni include Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, and Eugene Cernan, the last.

The 'Boilermakers' nickname came from an 1891 newspaper headline after a lopsided win over which college?

The Crawfordsville paper called them 'Burly Boiler Makers' after a 44-0 rout.

The University of Notre Dame sits just outside which Indiana city?

Its Golden Dome and 'Touchdown Jesus' mural are among the campus landmarks visitors seek out.

The 1811 Battle of Tippecanoe pitted Harrison against a confederacy led by which Shawnee leader?

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

Which city, founded by French fur traders in 1732, is Indiana's oldest European settlement?

It also served as the Indiana Territory's capital until 1813.

Who was elected Indiana's first governor in 1816, at the age of 32?

He had presided over the constitutional convention that summer.

Lincoln lived in Indiana from 1816 to 1830. His boyhood farm is a national memorial in which county?

His mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln is buried there in the Pioneer Cemetery.

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

His cavalry crossed the Ohio with more than 2,000 men and demanded ransoms from mill and shop owners to spare their buildings.

Levi Coffin, 'President of the Underground Railroad', ran his station from which Wayne County town?

Around three thousand fugitives passed through; the house is now nicknamed the railroad's 'Grand Central Station'.

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

The experiment lasted only a few years; the Harmony Society under George Rapp had built the town first.

Which lakeshore, the state's first national park, was created in 2019 on the shore of Lake Michigan?

It had been a National Lakeshore since 1966 and became the country's 61st national park.

Which Indiana city was founded in 1906 by U.S. Steel and named after the company's chairman?

Half a century later it became the birthplace of the Jackson 5.

Indiana builds about 85% of U.S. output of which product, whose self-styled world capital is Elkhart County?

Elkhart is also known as the 'Band Instrument Capital of the World'.

Which famous structure is made of Indiana limestone quarried between Bloomington and Bedford?

So are the Pentagon, the National Cathedral and about 35 state capitols.

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

The Root Glass Company's designers based the shape on a cocoa pod after confusing it with the coca leaf.

Which pharmaceutical giant, Indiana's largest corporation, was founded in Indianapolis in 1876?

It was the first company to mass-produce both insulin and the polio vaccine.

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

Founded in 1852 as a coachbuilder, it built its last car in 1966.

Elwood Haynes test-drove his early gasoline car, the Pioneer, on July 4, 1894, in which city?

The city styles itself the 'City of Firsts'; Haynes later co-discovered stainless steel.

According to a TV special, Garfield lives in which Indiana city, creator Jim Davis's hometown?

Davis's studio, Paws Inc., is based there too.

Which entertainer, later the best-selling solo musician of all time, was born in Gary, Indiana, in 1958?

He was the eighth of ten children and made his debut at six as lead singer of the Jackson 5.

Which actor, born in Marion in 1931, made only three major films before dying at 24?

He was raised by an aunt and uncle on their Fairmount farm in a Quaker household.

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

His mother shaved two years off his recorded birth year to make him seem more of a prodigy.

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

He survived the firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner in a slaughterhouse meat locker.

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

He was the grandson of the ninth president and won the 1888 election while losing the popular vote.

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

Columbus is also famous for its modernist architecture, commissioned by the Cummins engine company's leadership.

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

A hemophiliac, he was infected by a contaminated blood product and became a national advocate before dying in 1990.

Which Indiana town has the world's only post office bearing the name of a famous Christmas figure?

Settlers wanted 'Santa Fe' in 1854 but the name was taken, so they picked something jollier.

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

Also called desperation pie, it is credited to Quaker settlers who came from North Carolina to east-central Indiana.

Which sliced-loaf brand did Indianapolis's Taggart Baking Company launch in 1921?

Its balloon logo was inspired by a balloon race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

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

The townie 'Cutters' take their name from the local limestone stonecutters.

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

The 200-foot dome kept the U.S. record until a coliseum in Charlotte opened in 1955.

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

It built 155 of them between 1997 and 2025 and also had one of the country's first automated traffic signals.

In which Indiana city did the Detroit Pistons franchise begin life in 1937 as the Zollner Pistons?

The company team turned pro in 1941 and moved to Detroit in 1957.

About what share of Indiana's population is Old Order Amish, the highest percentage of any U.S. state?

Indiana's Swiss Amish communities also speak Alemannic dialects rather than Pennsylvania Dutch.

Indiana's state song was written in 1897 by which brother of novelist Theodore Dreiser?

The song stayed popular for decades before the General Assembly made it official; Dreiser claimed to have written part of it, which was never proven.

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

Public tours started within days of its discovery; it became a National Natural Landmark in 1984.

Which body of water is Indiana's deepest, reaching nearly 120 feet?

The state lists about 900 lakes, and its Wabash is the longest free-flowing river east of the Mississippi.

Which city has one of the largest Burmese immigrant communities in the United States?

Indiana's top immigrant origins in 2018 were Mexico, India, China, Myanmar and the Philippines.

Where does the Crane naval base near Bloomington rank among the world's naval installations by size?

The base sprawls across roughly 108 square miles of southern Indiana.

Which ancestry is the largest reported by Indiana residents, at 18.8%?

Germans formed the largest immigrant group in the early 19th century, alongside settlers from Ireland and England.

The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered in which Indiana town?

Richmond hosts the largest branch of American Quakerism and the country's oldest Quaker seminary.