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Note: Alaska and Hawaii are shown out of
position for reference only and are not to scale.
Blank
Indiana State Outline Map
Indiana is bounded on the north by
Lake
Michigan and the state of
Michigan;
on the east by Ohio;
on the south by
Kentucky, with which it shares the
Ohio River
as a border; and on the west by
Illinois.
Indiana is one of the
Great
Lakes states.
The northern boundary of the states of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois was
originally defined to be a latitudinal line drawn through the southernmost tip
of Lake Michigan. Since such a line would not provide Indiana with usable
frontage on the lake, its northern border was shifted ten miles (16 km) north.
The northern borders of Ohio and Illinois were also shifted from this original
plan.
The 475 mile (764 km) long
Wabash
River bisects the state from northeast to southwest and has given Indiana a
few theme songs,
On the Banks of the Wabash, The Wabash Cannonball and
Back Home Again, In Indiana. The Wabash is also the longest
free-flowing river east of the Mississippi; 400 miles (640 km) from the
Huntington dam to the Ohio River. The White River (a tributary of the Wabash,
which is a tributary of the Ohio) zigzags through central Indiana.
There are 24
Indiana state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of lakes in the
state. Areas under the control and protection of the
National Park Service or the
United States Forest Service include:
Northern Indiana
The northwest corner of the state is part of the
Chicago metropolitan area and has nearly one million residents.Gary,
and the cities and towns that make up the northern half of
Lake,
Porter, and
La Porte Counties bordering on
Lake
Michigan, are effectively commuter suburbs of Chicago. Porter and Lake
counties are commonly referred to as "The Calumet Region", or "The Region" for
short. The name comes from the fact that the Grand Calumet and Little Calumet
rivers run through the area. These counties are all in the Central
Time Zone
along with Chicago.
NICTD owns and operates the
South Shore Line,
a commuter rail line that runs electric-powered trains between
South Bend
and Chicago.
Sand dunes and heavy industry share the shoreline of Lake Michigan in northern
Indiana.
The
Kankakee River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as a
demarcating line between suburban northwest Indiana and the rest of the state.
The
South Bend metropolitan area, in north central Indiana, is the center of
commerce in the region better known as
Michiana.
Fort Wayne, the state's second largest city, is located in the northeastern
part of the state.
Central Indiana
The state capital,
Indianapolis, is situated in the central portion of the state. It is
intersected by numerous
Interstates and
U.S. highways, giving the state its motto as "The Crossroads of America".[11]
Other cities and towns located within the area include
Anderson,
Bloomington,
Carmel,
Columbus,
Crawfordsville,
Danville,
Fishers,
Franklin,
Greenwood,
Greenfield,
Kokomo,
Lafayette,
Lebanon,
Mooresville,
Muncie,
Richmond,
Terre Haute, and
West Lafayette.
Rural areas in the central portion of the state are typically composed of a
patchwork of
fields and
forested areas.
Southern Indiana
Evansville, the third largest city in Indiana, is located in the
southwestern corner of the state. It is located in a
tri-state area that includes Illinois, Indiana, and Kentucky. The
southeastern cities of
Clarksville,
Jeffersonville, and
New Albany are part of the
Louisville metropolitan area.
Vincennes, the oldest city in the state, is located on the
Wabash
River.
Southern Indiana is a mixture of farmland and forest. The
Hoosier National Forest is a 200,000 acre (80,900 ha) nature preserve in
south central Indiana. Southern Indiana's topography is more varied than that in
the north and generally contains more hills and geographic variation than the
northern portion, such as the "Knobs," a series of 1,000 ft (300 m). hills that
run parallel to the Ohio River in south-central Indiana.
Brown County is well-known for its hills covered with colorful autumn
foliage, T.S. Eliot's former home, and
Nashville, the county seat and shopping destination.
The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous caves and one
of the largest limestone quarry regions in the USA. Many of Indiana's official
buildings, such as the State capitol building, the downtown monuments, the
Indiana University School of Law in Indianapolis, many buildings at Indiana
University in Bloomington, and the Indiana Government Center are all examples of
Indiana architecture made with Indiana limestone. Indiana limestone has also
been used in many other famous structures in the US, such as the
University of Illinois' Memorial Stadium, the
Empire State Building, the
Pentagon, and the
Washington National Cathedral. In addition, 35 of the 50 state capitol
buildings are also made of Indiana Limestone.
For sixty years, from 1890 to 1950, the United States Census found the
center of population to lie in southern Indiana.
Climate
Most of Indiana has a
humid continental climate (Koppen
climate classification Dfa), with hot, humid summers and cool to cold
winters. The extreme southern portions of the state border on a
humid subtropical climate (Koppen Cfa) with somewhat milder winters.
Summertime maximum temperatures average around 85 °F (29 °C) with cooler nights
around 60 °F (16 °C). Winters are a little more variable, but generally cool to
cold temperatures with all but the northern part of the state averaging above
freezing for the maximum January temperature, and the minimum temperature below
20 °F (-8 °C) for most of the state. The
state receives a good amount of precipitation, 40 inches (1,000 mm) annually
statewide, in all four seasons, with March through August being slightly wetter.
The state does have its share of severe weather, both winter storms and
thunderstorms. While generally not receiving as much snow as some states
farther north, the state does have occasional
blizzards,
some due to
lake effect snow. The state averages around 40-50 days of thunderstorms per
year, with March and April being the period of most severe storms. While not
considered part of
Tornado Alley, Indiana is the Great Lakes state which is most vulnerable to
tornadic
activity. In fact, three of the most severe tornado outbreaks in U.S. history
affected Indiana, the
Tri-State Tornado of 1925, the
Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965 and the
Super Outbreak of 1974. The
Evansville Tornado of November 2005 killed 25 people, 20 people in
Vanderburgh County and 5 in Warrick County.
Interactive Indiana State Map
Explore the state of Indiana with the dynamic map below. You can
zoom, pan and even get a satellite map view.
Move your cursor over the markers on the map to
learn more about Indiana.
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