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Indiana’s license plates have read “Crossroads of America” since 1937 — not just because the interstates cross here, but because every migration, every war, and every cultural movement in American history passed through this ground.
Crossroads of America
The Miami, Potawatomi, Lenape, Shawnee, and other nations inhabited Indiana’s river valleys and prairies for centuries before European contact. The Miami people in particular built a sophisticated confederation centered on the Wabash and Maumee rivers. French traders and missionaries arrived in the late seventeenth century, establishing Fort Ouiatenon on the Wabash and Fort Miami at present-day Fort Wayne. Little Turtle, the Miami war chief, defeated two American armies in the early 1790s — the worst defeats the U.S. Army ever suffered at the hands of Native Americans — before Anthony Wayne’s army prevailed at Fallen Timbers in 1794.
Indiana entered the Union on December 11, 1816 as the nineteenth state. The territorial capital at Corydon gave way to Indianapolis in 1825 — a planned capital city in the geographic center of the state, laid out on a grid with a central circle modeled loosely on Washington D.C. The National Road, America’s first federally funded highway, crossed Indiana in the 1820s and 1830s, bringing settlers pouring in from the Ohio Valley and the South. The state’s nickname “Hoosier” predates statehood but its exact origin remains genuinely disputed — one of American etymology’s persistent mysteries.
The Civil War divided Indiana along the Ohio River, with southern Indiana counties maintaining cultural and economic ties to Kentucky and the South, while the northern counties were firmly abolitionist. Indiana sent 208,000 men to the Union Army. Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s cavalry raid through southern Indiana in 1863 — the northernmost Confederate military incursion of the war — shocked residents who had considered themselves safely removed from the fighting. The raid reached as far north as Vernon before Morgan was captured in Ohio.
Indianapolis became a manufacturing and transportation hub in the late nineteenth century. The first Indianapolis 500 ran on May 30, 1911 on a track paved with 3.2 million bricks, originally built as an automotive testing ground. The brick surface — which gave the track its “Brickyard” nickname — was paved over in 1961, but a yard of original brick was preserved at the start-finish line. Eli Lilly founded his pharmaceutical company in Indianapolis in 1876; it is now one of the world’s largest drug companies. The steel mills of Gary, built by U.S. Steel in 1906, created an industrial city almost overnight and drew waves of immigrants and Great Migration arrivals.
Indiana’s cultural output has been quietly disproportionate. Cole Porter was born in Peru. Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis. James Dean was born in Marion. The Jackson 5 came from Gary. John Mellencamp has spent his career making records about small-town Indiana life. The Indiana limestone belt — running through Lawrence, Monroe, and Owen counties in the south — provided the oolitic limestone used to build the Empire State Building, the Pentagon, the National Cathedral, and dozens of other American monuments. The stone is quarried from a belt 35 miles long and 10 miles wide, and it has been building America for 150 years.
1794
Battle of Fallen Timbers
Anthony Wayne defeats the Miami Confederation at Fallen Timbers, Ohio, ending a decade of warfare. The subsequent Treaty of Greenville opens the Northwest Territory to American settlement, including most of Indiana.
1811
Battle of Tippecanoe
William Henry Harrison defeats Tecumseh’s brother Tenskwatawa at Prophetstown on the Tippecanoe River. The battle breaks the pan-tribal confederacy Tecumseh was building and opens Indiana’s interior to rapid settlement.
1816
Statehood
Indiana enters the Union on December 11 as the nineteenth state, with Corydon as its first capital. The state constitution is drafted under a large elm tree — the Constitutional Elm — because the courthouse is too small.
1825
Indianapolis Founded
Indianapolis is platted as a planned capital city in the geographic center of the state. It will grow slowly until the railroads arrive, then quickly enough to become the largest city in the country not on a navigable waterway.
1863
Morgan’s Raid
Confederate cavalry under John Hunt Morgan cross the Ohio River into Indiana, the northernmost Confederate military incursion of the war. Morgan is captured in Ohio — but the raid exposes how vulnerable the home front was.
1906
Gary Founded
U.S. Steel builds an entire city from scratch on the Lake Michigan shore, naming it for the company’s chairman. Within a decade Gary is producing more steel than most nations. Waves of immigrants and Great Migration arrivals build it.
1911
First Indianapolis 500
Ray Harroun wins the inaugural Indianapolis 500 in 6 hours, 42 minutes on a track of 3.2 million bricks. The race will run every Memorial Day for the next century without interruption.
1969
Jackson 5 Sign with Motown
The Jackson 5 — five brothers from Gary, Indiana — sign with Motown Records and release “I Want You Back.” Michael Jackson is eleven years old.
1994
Brickyard 400
NASCAR holds its first Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway — expanding the track’s identity beyond open-wheel racing and cementing Indiana’s status as the racing capital of America.
2012
Super Bowl in Indianapolis
Indianapolis hosts Super Bowl XLVI, the first time a northern cold-weather city hosts the game in a largely open-air stadium. The city pulls it off flawlessly, cementing its reputation as a premier events host.
