1630 North Meridian Street
Indianapolis, Indiana 46202-1496
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives:
Indiana Energy is committed to maximizing returns to investors, commensurate with business risk, and to providing long-term value to our customers by delivering high-quality, competitively priced products and services. All this we accomplish through our most important assets, our employees, and through supporting the communities where we live and work.
History of Indiana Energy, Inc.
Indiana Energy, Inc. (IEI) is a holding company with subsidiaries in natural gas distribution and related services. The company's primary subsidiary, Indiana Gas, is a public utility that provides natural gas to approximately 489,000 residential, commercial, and industrial customers in Indiana. A second subsidiary, IEI Investments, operates as a holding company for the parent company's interests in non-regulated industries. The subsidiary companies of IEI Investments are Energy Realty, a limited partner in three affordable housing complexes in the Indiana Gas service area, and IGC Energy. IGC Energy is a joint owner of ProLiance Energy L.L.C., a strategic partnership formed to supply natural gas and related services to Indiana and surrounding states. The co-owner of ProLiance is Citizens Gas and Coke Utility, a natural gas distribution company serving Indianapolis, Indiana.
The Early Years: Reorganization, Incorporation, and Trouble-Shooting
Indiana Energy, Inc. began its existence as Indiana Gas & Water Company, a utility under the corporate umbrella of the large multi-utility Public Service Indiana. PSI, which included gas, water, electric, and transportation divisions, was formed at the beginning of the 20th century as part of Middle West Utilities, a gigantic Chicago-based holding company. Through the 1910s and 1920s, PSI evolved by acquiring and operating a number of small individual utility companies in communities throughout central and southern Indiana. In the early 1930s, however, undercapitalized and hit hard by the Depression, PSI's parent company Middle West Utilities, filed for reorganization and the company was ordered into receivership. In 1941, as part of its reorganization plan to emerge from bankruptcy, PSI proposed divesting of its gas and water divisions. The plan was approved by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and four years later, the Indiana Gas & Water Company was incorporated.
Most of the total cost of the new company was financed by issuing 277,500 shares of stock worth $8.5 million to PSI. The balance of the purchase price came from $6 million worth of bonds. At the time of its incorporation, the Indianapolis-based Indiana Gas & Water provided gas to approximately 61,000 customers in 42 southern, central, and central-northern Indiana communities. Water service was provided to just over 29,000 customers in 19 communities.
The spin-off company faced an immediate and formidable problem: its gas distribution system was outdated and not well maintained. Through the Depression and the early years of World War II, PSI had lacked both the funding and materials necessary to adequately maintain and expand the system. For the most part, therefore, no improvements had been made since the early 1930s. The newly organized Indiana Gas & Water set about improving the situation in early 1946, with an ambitious three-year, $3 million construction program. The project involved building 60 miles of new gas line and adding more than 4,500 new customers.
A second major problem was the inadequate supplies of pipeline gas available from the company's suppliers. In the years immediately following Indiana Gas & Water's incorporation, the use of natural gas grew at an unprecedented rate, and the suppliers were often unable to keep up with the demand. To alleviate part of the shortage, in 1947 the company built a transmission line southward to connect with a major pipeline operated by the Texas Eastern Gas Transmission Corporation. As the gas squeeze grew tighter in the late 1940s, Indiana Gas & Water installed a number of small liquefied-petroleum air gas plants to provide standby gas during peak demand days. Even so, gas remained in short supply throughout the 1940s and into the early 1950s, and the company was forced to move slowly in its expansion efforts.
Strengthening and Expanding the System
The second half of the 1950s was a time of rapid growth for the gas industry throughout the United States. New natural gas fields were discovered in Mexico, Canada, Louisiana, and North Dakota, and the first offshore gas pipeline was built in the Gulf of Mexico. It appeared that the shortage was at an end, and the gas industry boomed. Indiana Gas & Water used the decade to further strengthen and broaden its gas distribution and storage system. By the early 1950s, the company had sold several of its small-town water properties to the Hoosier Water Company and used the proceeds to purchase additional natural gas facilities. Near the end of the 1950s, storage became the company's focus. Following the industry trend toward underground storage, Indiana Gas & Water developed three underground fields capable of storing more than three billion cubic feet of gas. The newfound gas supplies also allowed the company to take more gas from its suppliers, upping its daily take from 52.5 million to 140 million cubic feet of gas between 1959 and 1961.
With the upgraded distribution system, the addition of new storage fields, and the greatly increased gas supply, Indiana Gas & Water was poised for expansion. The company entered the 1960s with a growth strategy that quickly played out. Projecting that population growth in central Indiana would be concentrated in the suburban areas around Indianapolis, the company started the decade by installing distribution lines to three new communities in the Indianapolis region. (This decision proved to be both foresighted and pivotal. As predicted, the size of these new communities did increase dramatically: in the years between 1960 and 1990, their population would more than double.) Indiana Gas & Water followed this expansion with further growth as the decade progressed&mdashø include more than 20 new communities in its service area. The strategy paid off almost immediately. By 1965, the company was one of the state's fastest-growing utilities, with a service area of 76 communities throughout southern, central, and north-central sections of Indiana.
The second half of the 1960s was marked by a series of acquisitions and one major divestiture. Between 1965 and 1968, Indiana Gas & Water purchased four existing gas utility companies, expanding its service territory to include more than 20 new communities. The company also made the decision to sell off its remaining water utilities to three Chicago investors for the price of $13.4 million. With the divestiture of the water companies, a name change was necessary--and Indiana Gas & Water became Indiana Gas Company. In 1970, the company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol IGC.
The Gas Shortage Years
Leaving the boom years of the late 1950s and 1960s behind, the gas industry fell on hard times again in the 1970s with the onset of the fuel shortage. The gas that had been so abundant in the previous decade was suddenly in short supply. A main factor behind the shortage was the Federal regulation of natural gas prices. Under this regulation, gas producers were unable to command high enough prices to make feasible the costly exploration and drilling for new gas sources. As a result, domestic exploration and drilling had declined, and the U.S. gas industry had become increasingly dependent upon foreign sources.
In 1970, Texas Eastern, one of Indiana Gas's suppliers, announced that it would begin curtailing gas shipments to some of its customers. Indiana Gas responded by dividing its customers into "firm' and "interruptible' categories, informing its industrial customers to be prepared to switch to other fuels in case of curtailment. A few months later, the company was notified by its suppliers that they could provide no further volume increases under contract. Gas supplies got even tighter in 1973, with the OPEC Oil Embargo, instituted by the Arab nations to protest U.S. support of Israel. To partially ameliorate the crunch, Indiana Gas built a propane storage installation, and purchased 840,000 gallons of liquid propane from Texas Eastern. By mixing the propane with 48 percent air, the company was able to produce a gas similar in quality to natural gas.
Despite the continued gas shortage, Indiana Gas broadened its base in the mid-1970s by purchasing the Muncie-based Central Indiana Gas Company. Central Indiana Gas Company was a company of substantial size, with 538 employees and more than 100,000 customers in 62 east central Indiana communities. The purchase, when completed in 1976, made Indiana Gas Company the state's second largest gas-distribution utility, with more than 292,000 customers.
The shortage that plagued Indiana Gas throughout the first part of the 1970s was aggravated near the end of the decade by some of the worst winter weather of the century. Contending with increased customer demand for gas for heating purposes, Indiana Gas announced curtailments for 234 large-volume customers in December 1975. Along with the shortages and curtailments came price hikes. By 1977, the company was paying its suppliers more than 150 percent more for gas than it had been paying only four years earlier. At the same time, the cost of virtually everything else was increasing. Inflation, which had been held at bay during the early postwar years, was climbing steadily. In 1977, to offset its increased expenses, Indiana Gas asked the Public Service Commission to approve a rate adjustment. The approved 9.8 percent increase allowed the company to recover approximately $15.25 million per year.
Deregulation, High Prices, and the Gas Bubble
The last years of the 1970s marked the beginning of a new and turbulent era for Indiana Gas. In 1977, President Jimmy Carter proposed a sweeping package of energy legislation that was to completely alter the way gas companies did business. When Congress passed the bill in 1978, the piece of legislation that had the greatest impact on the gas industry was the Natural Gas Policy Act. This act provided for a steady increase in gas prices for producers at the wellhead between the years of 1978 and 1985. On January 1, 1985, under the same legislation, the natural gas industry would be completely deregulated. There were to be further price regulations on gas discovered after 1977. In addition, the new policy enabled gas companies, and even large industrial and commercial customers to purchase gas directly from the producers. Until this time, the pipelines had purchased gas from the producers, and in turn sold it to the distributors. The Natural Gas Policy Act was designed to encourage domestic exploration for new gas sources by creating a more competitive marketplace and allowing producers to command higher prices--and it worked. Gas producers all across North America stepped up exploratory drilling, and new gas sources were made available. The gas shortage began to ease late in 1978.
The reversal came at a high price, however. In 1978, the CEO of Indiana Gas, John Kavanagh, cautioned gas customers of what was likely to come. "All of the activities to provide additional gas require very large capital outlays, and it appears that high inflation will affect costs in the 1980s,' he noted in an essay for the Indianapolis News. "Therefore, efforts to obtain gas supplies for present and future consumers will be reflected in higher delivered prices,' he cautioned. Kavanagh was correct in his prediction. With the loosening of price controls, natural gas pipeline suppliers increased their rates rapidly and recklessly. In 1982, Indiana Gas' major supplier raised its gas price by 40 percent in just one adjustment.
The sudden jump in gas prices at the supplier level sent Indiana Gas to the Public Service Commission to petition for a series of rate increases. A 7.8 percent increase in 1980 was followed by an 11.1 increase in 1982 and a 5.2 percent hike in 1983. The company was finally able to access enough gas to service all of its customers--but both the customers and the company were paying exorbitant amounts for it. The high prices led to two natural reactions from gas customers: dissatisfaction and conservation. Faced with prices that were going through the roof, both residential and commercial customers began conserving gas. Many commercial customers switched to alternative fuels, such as electricity, coal, and propane. Indiana Gas was faced with a problem that was the polar opposite of the gas crunch: it had more supply than demand.
The gas surplus, called "the gas bubble' by industry economists, was by no means limited to Indiana Gas or to the state of Indiana. Eventually, this so-called bubble affected the price of gas at the supplier level, and in 1983, the pendulum swung back the other way. Indiana Gas received a reduction in purchase costs from pipeline suppliers, and was able to lower its rates for the first time since 1978. Gas prices continued dropping throughout the 1980s.
Meeting the Challenges of the New Marketplace
In the wake of the turbulent gas shortage and facing the challenges of deregulation, Indiana Gas moved into a period of change and reorganization. The first major change came in 1985, when Indiana Energy, Inc. (IEI) was created as a holding company for Indiana Gas. Then CEO Duane Amundson said the purpose of the reorganization was "to establish a more flexible corporate structure that will position us to diversify our income sources and to expand our energy-related operations.'
The second half of the 1980s was taken up with revamping, both major and minor. The company's materials distribution and dispatching functions were centralized in a former Indianapolis warehouse. The company's 27 commercial officers were consolidated into six regional offices, and meter-reading routes were reorganized to improve efficiency and save time. The marketing department kicked off a major new campaign to both win new and retain existing customers. Along with these restructuring projects, the corporate culture changed to become more in keeping with the tenets of the 1985 mission statement. The company became more customer-focused, and the management style slowly evolved from a top-down to an employee-participation approach.
With the task of restructuring largely behind it, Indiana Energy began the processes it was created for: expansion and diversification. In 1990, the company acquired Richmond Gas Corporation and Terre Haute Gas, adding about 47,000 customers. With the two new additions, Indiana Gas had a customer base of 391,000 customers and annual revenues of about $390 million. To begin diversification, IEI formed the subsidiary IEI Investments, Inc., which served as a holding company for all non-regulated businesses. This structure in place, IEI began to invest in businesses that were outside the gas distribution industry--such as flexible gas piping and real estate.
IEI took a major step in 1996, with the formation of ProLiance Energy L.L.C., a strategic alliance of IEI Investments subsidiary IGC Energy, Inc. and a subsidiary of Citizens Gas and Coke Utility. The alliance was formed to supply gas, power, and marketing services to both Indiana Gas and Citizens Gas, as well as other companies. As the sole supplier for these companies, ProLiance had the ability to negotiate favorable prices for gas supplies. It was this fact, however, that led 18 Indiana businesses to protest the ProLiance-Indiana Gas gas-purchasing agreement, claiming that it gave ProLiance a monopoly over gas supplies and prices. Although the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission upheld the agreement, the Indiana Court of Appeals reversed the decision in 1998. IEI petitioned for the case to be transferred to the Indiana Supreme Court.
Two similar alliances were formed in 1997, again between IEI and a subsidiary of Citizens Gas and Coke. CIGMA L.L.C., was designed to combine the purchasing power of the companies to obtain better pricing, reduce combined inventory, and allow for quick inventory turnover. Energy Systems Group L.L.C. evaluated institutional and industrial customers' use of energy, and designs, finances, and installed upgrades to maximize energy efficiency and operational performance. A fourth alliance, Reliant Services L.L.C., was formed in 1998 with Indiana electric company, Cinergy Corp. Reliant Services offered locating and trenching services to gas, electric, water, and cable companies.
The year 1998 also brought changes to IEI's corporate structure. The company divided into separate and distinct business units: Indiana Gas, IEI Investments, and a new, third division, IEI Services. IEI Services served as the company's administrative arm, providing human relations, information technology, accounting, tax, and building and fleet management services to the IEI companies.
Moving into the 21st Century
In 1997, Indiana Energy's Board of Directors approved a growth strategy to support the company's transition into the more competitive deregulated market between the years of 1998 and 2003. The twin goals of the plan were for IEI to become a "leading regional provider of energy products and services' and to increase its consolidated earnings per share by an average of ten percent annually through 2003. Achievement of this goal would likely mean earnings of $2.40 per share by the end of the five-year period. IEI's strategy relies largely upon growing the earnings from its non-regulated businesses to more than 25 percent of total annual earnings. Increased earnings and customer base for Indiana Gas was another key tenet of the strategy. Indiana Gas earnings were projected to increase five percent yearly for the foreseeable future. IEI also pledged to reduce costs during the five-year plan period. In June 1997, the company announced its intent to reduce the number of full-time employees from 1,025 to approximately 800 by the end of the year 2002. It also committed to selling, abandoning, or otherwise disposing of certain assets, including buildings and gas storage fields.
Principal Subsidiaries: Indiana Gas Company, Inc.; IEI Services L.L.C.; IEI Investments, Inc.; IGC Energy, Inc.; Energy Realty, Inc.; Indiana Energy Services, Inc.; Energy Financial Group, Inc.; IEI Financial Services L.L.C.; ProLiance Energy L.L.C. (50%); Reliant Services L.L.C. (50%).
Related information about Indiana
pop (2000e) 6 081 000; area
93 716 km²/36 185 sq mi. State in EC USA,
S of L Michigan, divided into 92 counties; the ‘Hoosier State’;
19th state to join the Union, 1816; visited by La Salle in 1679 and
1681; occupied by the French, who ceded the state to the British in
1763; scene of many major Indian battles; capital, Indianapolis;
chief towns, Fort Wayne, South Bend, Gary, Evansville; ports on L
Michigan; hilly in the S, fertile plains in the C, and flat
glaciated land in the N; grain, soybeans, pigs, cattle; bituminous
coal, limestone, steel and iron, chemicals, motor vehicles,
electrical goods.
Indiana, meaning the "Land of the Indians," is a state in the Great
Lakes region of the Midwestern United States. Indiana is 15th in population at nearly 6.3
million,Indiana quickfacts and
38th in size,States ranked by size
making it 17th in population density.States ranked by population
density About half (49.48%) of Indiana's population lives in
the metropolitan areas of Indianapolis, Gary-Hammond (suburban Chicago), Fort Wayne, or Evansville.
Geography
Indiana is bounded on the north by Lake Michigan and the state of Michigan; Indiana is one of the
Great Lakes
states.
The 475 mile (764 km) long Wabash River bisects the state from northeast to
southwest and has given Indiana two theme songs, the state song
On the Banks of the Wabash as well as The Wabash
Cannonball. 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.
South Bend / North Central Indiana
South
Bend, Mishawaka, Elkhart and Goshen, in north central Indiana, make up the region
known as Michiana.
These cities, though categorized by the U.S. Census Bureau in two
metropolitan areas, have become a single metropolitan area over the
past 10 years, spanning both St. Joseph
and Elkhart counties.
The Kankakee
River, which winds through northern Indiana, serves somewhat as
a demarcating line between rural and suburban northwest Indiana.
The limestone geology of Southern Indiana has created numerous
caves and one of the largest limestone quarry regions in the
USA.
Areas under the control and protection of the National Park
Service include:
- George Rogers Clark National Historical Park in
Vincennes
- Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore near Porter
- Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln
City
- Hoosier National Forest in Bedford
See also List of Indiana counties and their etymologies; List of
townships in Indiana
History
The area of Indiana has been settled since before the
development of the Hopewell culture (ca. The specific Native
American tribes that inhabited this territory at that time were
primarily the Miami
and the Shawnee. The area was claimed for New France in the 17th century, handed over
to the Kingdom of Great Britain as part of the settlement at
the end of the French and Indian War, given to the United States after the
American
Revolution, soon after which it became part of the Northwest Territory,
then the Indiana
Territory, and joined the Union in 1816 as the 19th state.
Pioneer Era: 1816-1860
On June 29, 1816, Indiana adopted a
constitution, and on December 11, 1816, became the 19th State to join the Union.Indiana statehood
No slavery was allowed, making the state an attractive destination
for people like Abraham Lincoln's family, which was disgusted with
slavery in Kentucky.. Persons citing "American" (12.0%) and
English
ancestry (8.9%) are also numerous, as are Irish (10.8%) and
Polish (3.0%). Profile of
Selected Social Characteristics: 2000
South Bend
has a large Polish
population and there are a sizable number of people with Belgian ancestry in Mishawaka.
Dyngus Day, the
Polish celebration of the end of Lent, takes place on the Monday
after Easter and is widely celebrated in South Bend.
A large Hispanic/Latino population exists in Elkhart County,
particularly the north side of the city of Goshen. Indianapolis
has a rapidly growing Hispanic/Latino population as well.
It is sometimes said that culturally Indiana is demarcated by
US Highway 30,
which runs on a southeast-northwest axis from Fort Wayne through
Merrillville into Illinois. Those living north of US 30
are often closer in attitude to Chicago and Detroit, and some feel a disconnection from the rest of
the state. South of US 30 tends to have the more stereotypical
Hoosier rural,
conservative attitudes, though this of course is in question in the
larger cities like Indianapolis, Lafayette and Evansville.
Bloomington, home of Indiana
University, tends to be much more culturally liberal than the
rest of the state. Southern Indiana (particularly the counties
bordering Louisville, KY) tends to be culturally and linguistically
more associated with Kentucky.
Population growth since 1990 has been concentrated in the counties
surrounding Indianapolis, with four of the top five fastest-growing
counties in that area: Hamilton, Hendricks,
Johnson, and Hancock. Meanwhile, population decline has
primarily been in a series of counties that geographically form a
line between Logansport and Richmond. Vigo, Knox, and Perry counties,
along the Wabash
River and the Ohio
River, also experienced decline.
Religion
Religiously, Indiana is predominantly Protestant, although there is
also a significant Roman Catholic population. Indiana is home to a sizable
and influential proportion of Mennonite and Amish Christians, particularly in Elkhart and LaGrange
Counties in the north, and a smaller number in Parke County in the
west. The state has the nation's largest population of members of
the Protestant "Churches of Christ" denomination.
Roman
Catholic and mainline Protestant churches are strong in the cities,
but in rural areas evangelical and fundamentalist churches, such as independent Baptist and
Pentecostal churches, tend to dominate. Two conservative
denominations, the Free Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Church, have
their headquarters in Indianapolis.
The Islamic Society of North America is headquartered just
off Interstate 70
in Plainfield, west of Indianapolis.
There are significant numbers of Jews in urban areas, particularly Indianapolis, South
Bend, Fort Wayne and Terre Haute.
The current religious affiliations of the people of Indiana are
shown below:
-
Christian –
padding-left:12px;">
| 30 Largest Cities Census
Population Estimates for 2005 |
2005 Population
|
| Indianapolis |
784,118
|
| Fort Wayne |
223,341
|
| Evansville |
115,918
|
| South Bend |
105,262
|
| Gary |
98,715
|
| Hammond |
79,217
|
| Bloomington |
69,017
|
| Muncie |
66,164
|
| Lafayette |
60,459
|
| Carmel |
59,243
|
| Anderson |
57,500
|
| Fishers |
57,220
|
| Terre Haute |
56,893
|
| Elkhart |
52,270
|
| Mishawaka |
48,497
|
| Kokomo |
46,178
|
| Greenwood |
42,236
|
| Lawrence |
40,959
|
| Columbus |
39,380
|
| Noblesville |
38,825
|
| Richmond |
37,560
|
| New Albany |
36,772
|
| Portage |
35,687
|
| Michigan City |
32,205
|
| Merrillville |
31,525
|
| Goshen |
31,269
|
| East Chicago |
30,946
|
| Marion |
30,644
|
| Valparaiso |
29,102
|
| Jeffersonville |
28,621
|
Indianapolis is the capital of Indiana, near the
geographic center of the state. Other Indiana
cities functioning as centers of United
States metropolitan areas include Anderson,
Bloomington (home of Indiana
University's main campus), Columbus,
Elkhart,
Evansville (home of University of
Evansville and University of Southern Indiana), Fort Wayne,
Gary (home
of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore), Kokomo, Lafayette ,
Michigan City, Muncie (home of Ball State
University), South Bend (home of University of
Notre Dame, and Terre Haute (home of Indiana State
University and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology).
Indiana cities that function as centers of United
States micropolitan areas include Angola, Auburn, Bedford, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Decatur, Frankfort,
Greensburg, Huntington, Jasper, Kendallville, Logansport,
Madison,
Marion,
New
Castle, North Vernon, Peru, Plymouth, Richmond,
Scottsburg, Seymour, Vincennes,Wabash, Warsaw, and Washington.
Other communities with populations of 10,000 or more include
Beech
Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Chesterton,
Clarksville, Connersville, Crawfordsville, Crown Point,
Dyer,
East
Chicago, Fishers, Franklin, Goshen, Greencastle,
Greenfield, Greenwood, Griffith,
Hammond,
Highland, Hobart, Jeffersonville, Lake
Station, Lawrence, Lebanon, Martinsville, Merrillville, Mooresville,
Munster,
New
Albany, New Haven, Noblesville, Plainfield,
Portage,
Schererville, Shelbyville,
Speedway, Valparaiso, West
Lafayette (home of Purdue University), Westfield, and
Zionsville.
The suburbs of Indianapolis include Anderson,
Avon,
Beech
Grove, Brownsburg, Carmel, Clermont, Danville,
Fishers,
Franklin, Greenfield, Greenwood,
Lawrence, Lebanon, Noblesville,
Pendleton, Plainfield, Southport,
Speedway, West Newton, Whiteland, and
Zionsville.
The Indiana suburbs of Chicago, Illinois include Crown Point,
Dyer,
East
Chicago, Gary, Griffith, Hammond, Highland, Lake County, Hobart, Merrillville, Munster, Valparaiso,
Portage,
and Chesterton.
The Indiana suburbs of Louisville, Kentucky include Clarksville,
Jeffersonville, and New
Albany.
Fort Wayne's Indiana suburbs include Huntertown,
Leo-Cedarville, Monroeville,
and New
Haven, Woodburn.
Evansville's Indiana suburbs include Princeton,
Newburgh, and Mt.
Vernon.
South Bend's Indiana suburbs include Granger, Mishawaka,
North
Liberty, Osceola, Walkerton, and Roseland.
Law and government
Indiana's government has three branches: executive, legislative
and judicial. On the national level, Indiana is represented in
Congress by two Senators and nine Representatives.
The current governor of Indiana is Mitch Daniels, whose
campaign slogan was "My Man Mitch," an appellation given by
President George W. Johnson over Barry Goldwater in
1964, Indiana has not
backed a single Democratic presidential candidate. Republicans
have generally reliable assurance that they will win the state,
while Democrats do not appear to want to make the effort to win
votes there because of all-but-assured Republican
dominance.
During a 2005 speaking engagement, former President Bill Clinton
half-jokingly thanked supporters for "allowing" him into such a
"red state".
However, half of Indiana's governors in the 20th century were
Democrats, though their policies were considerably more
right-of-center than Democrats in other parts of the country.
His father was a three-term senator with a liberal record who
was turned out of office in the 1980 "Reagan Revolution"
by conservative Republican (and future Vice-President)
Dan Quayle, a
native of the small town of Huntington in
the northeastern part of the state. Until the election of
former Governor Evan Bayh to the U.S. Senate, Indiana had an
all-Republican Senatorial delegation, composed of the strongly
conservative Dan
Coats (later appointed Ambassador to Germany) and the
relatively moderate Richard Lugar, who is widely respected in both
parties for his experience in world affairs.
Most Hoosiers identify themselves as "conservative", and
right-wing
talk radio
programming such as Rush Limbaugh is widely listened to (the first "Rush
Room" in the United States was formed in Mishawaka). Gun politics (Indiana
was the first state to enact a lifetime concealed-carry license
for handguns), unions, gay marriage, taxes or workers' rights issues (Indiana is a
staunchly pro-management, at-will employment state) are not popular issues
among many Hoosiers, which can explain their attachment to the
GOP. Indiana's other manufactures include automobiles,
electrical equipment, transportation equipment, chemical
products, rubber, petroleum and coal products, and factory machinery. In addition,
Indiana has the international headquarters of pharmaceutical
company Eli Lilly as well as the headquarters of Mead
Johnson Nutritionals, a division of Bristol-Myers
Squibb. Elkhart, in the north, has also had a strong
economic base of pharmaceuticals, though this has changed over
the past decade with the closure of Whitehall Laboratories in
the 1990s and the planned drawdown of the large Bayer complex, announced in
late 2005.
Despite its reliance on manufacturing, Indiana has been much
less affected by declines in traditional Rust Belt manufactures
than many of its neighbors. (Source for basic manufacturing
facts in the above two paragraphs is generally McCoy and
McNamara, "Manufacturers in Indiana," Purdue University Center
for Rural Development, Research Paper 19, July 1998.)
In mining, Indiana is probably best known for its decorative
limestone from the
southern, hilly portion of the state, especially from Lawrence
County (the home area of Apollo I astronaut Gus Grissom). One of the
many public buildings faced with this stone is The Pentagon, and after
the September 11, 2001 attacks, a special effort was
made by the mining industry of Indiana to replace those damaged
walls with as nearly identical type and cut of material as the
original facing. Workers' Compensation payouts are the lowest
in the United States.
Indiana has a flat state income tax rate of 3.4 percent.
Transportation
Highways
The major U.S. Interstate highways in Indiana
are I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74,
I-64, I-80, and I-90.
In the state of Indiana there were 932 traffic deaths in 2005.
padding: 0 0px 0 0px;">
- Ball
State University
- Indiana State University
-
Indiana University System
- Indiana University
(Bloomington)
- Indiana University East (Richmond)
- Indiana University Kokomo
- Indiana University Northwest
- Indiana University South Bend
- Indiana University Southeast
- Indiana University-Purdue University
Columbus
- Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
- Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis
- Ivy
Tech State College
-
Purdue University System
- Purdue University
- Purdue University Calumet
- Purdue University North
Central
- Indiana University-Purdue University
Columbus
- Indiana
University-Purdue University Fort Wayne
- Indiana
University-Purdue University Indianapolis
-
Purdue University College of
Technology
- Anderson
- Columbus
- Indianapolis
- Kokomo
- Muncie
- New Albany
- Richmond
- Indiana University South
Bend
- Versailles
- University of Southern Indiana
- Vincennes University
- Ancilla College
- Anderson University
- Bethel College
- Butler University
- Calumet College of St.
Joseph
- Christian Theological
Seminary
- Concordia Theological Seminary
(Fort Wayne campus)
- DePauw University
- DeVry University
- Earlham College
- Franklin College
- Goshen College
- Grace
College
- Hanover College
- Holy Cross College
- Huntington University
- Hyles-Anderson College
- Indiana Institute of
Technology
- Indiana Wesleyan University
- Manchester College
- Marian College
- Martin University
- Oakland City University
- Rose-Hulman Institute of
Technology
- Saint Joseph's College
- Saint Meinrad College www.indiana.edu/~poynter/eep/meinrad.html
- Saint Mary-of-the-Woods
College
- Saint Mary's College
- Taylor University
- Tri-State University
- University of Evansville
- University of Indianapolis
- University of Notre Dame
- University of Saint Francis
- Valparaiso University
- Wabash College
|
Professional sports teams
Indiana currently has two
major professional sports league franchises, both of
which are based in Indianapolis:
- Indianapolis Colts, National
Football League
- Indiana
Pacers, National Basketball Association
Several minor league professional teams also play in
Indiana:
- FC
Indiana, Women's Premier Soccer League
- Fort Wayne Komets, United
Hockey League
- Gary
Steelheads, Continental Basketball
Association
- Indiana Fever, Women's National Basketball
Association
- Indiana
Ice, United States Hockey League
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-
Minor League baseball teams
- Evansville Otters
- Fort Wayne Wizards
- Gary SouthShore
RailCats
- Indianapolis Indians
- South Bend Silver Hawks
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Miscellaneous topics
There are 24 Indiana
state parks, nine man-made reservoirs, and hundreds of
lakes in the state.
Several vessels of the United States Navy have borne the name
USS
Indiana in honor of this state.
- Scouting in Indiana
- The
Herbalist
Military installations
Indiana was formerly home to two
major military installations, Grissom Air Force
Base near Peru (reduced to reservist operations in 1994)
and Fort
Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis, now largely reduced to
reservist operations, though the Department of
Defense continues to operate a large financial institution
there.
Current active installations include Air National
Guard fighter units at Fort Wayne,
Camp
Atterbury in Edinburgh, Indiana, and Terre Haute airports (to
be consolidated at Fort Wayne under the 2005 BRAC proposal,
with the Terre Haute facility remaining open as a non-flying
installation), the Crane Naval Weapons Center in the southwest of
the state and the Army's Newport Chemical
Depot, which is currently heavily involved in neutralizing
dangerous chemical weapons stored there. Due to the confusion
of anyone not from Indiana, the state passed a billwww.in.gov/apps/lsa/session/billwatch/billinfo?year=2005&request=getBill&docno=127
in 2005 whereby the entire state began observing daylight
saving time starting in April 2006.New Timezone Map produced by
Indiana Chamber of Commerce
State symbols
- State bird: Cardinal
- State
flower: Peony
- State motto: "Crossroads of America."
- State poem: Indiana, by Arthur Franklin
Mapes.Indiana Emblems - State
Poem: About Indiana, Indiana State government
website. Retrieved 24 September 2006.
- State song: On the Banks of the Wabash, Far
Away
- State river: Wabash
- State
stone: Salem limestone
- State tree:
Tulip
tree
Famous Hoosiers
(col-begin)
- George
Ball, industrialist
- Albert
J. Debs, Socialist Presidential candidate
- Mark
Dismore, racecar driver
- Theodore
Dreiser, novelist
- Paul
Dresser, song writer
- Edward
Eggleston, author
- Jim
Gaffigan, comedian
- Lillian
Gilbreth, home economist
- Charles
Halleck, politician
- Benjamin
Harrison, U.S. President
- William Henry Harrison, U.S. President and
General
- Richard
Hatcher, politician
- Elwood
Haynes, inventor
- Theodore
Hesburgh, educator and religious leader
- Paul
Hoffman, industrialist
- Alfred
Kinsey, sex researcher
- Bobby
Knight, basketball coach
- David
Letterman, comedian and talk show host
- Eli Lilly,
industrialist & philanthropist
- Joseph F.
Stephenson, KKK leader
- Tony
Stewart, Nascar driver
- Gene
Stratton-Porter, novelist
- Booth
Tarkington , novelist
- Steve
Tesich, writer
- Maurice
Thompson, novelist
- Kurt
Vonnegut, writer
- Lew
Wallace, novelist
- Wendell
Willkie, politician
- John
Wooden, basketball coach
(col-end)
Indiana is the home state of many astronauts, including such
notables as "Gus"
Grissom, Frank
Borman and David
Wolf. The state was birthplace of numerous entertainers and
sportsmen:
- Singer/Farm
Aid activist John Mellencamp, born in Seymour and
residing near Bloomington.
- The Jackson
5/Michael
Jackson/Janet Jackson entertainment family, of Gary.
- Don Larsen
baseball player
- David
Letterman Host of The Late Show; born in Lafayette.
- David Lee
Roth Original lead singer of Van Halen;
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