Physical Geography
Indiana is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States.Indiana lies within the Central Lowlands region of the United States and consists mostly of flat to gently rolling land. Glaciers shaped most of the terrain by laying down thick deposits of debris during the last Ice Age. In some places they left distinct topographic features, including the large till plain that crosses central Indiana, the flattest part of the state. Large sand dunes line part of the Lake Michigan shore.
Moderately hilly areas occur in the southeastern and south-central sections of Indiana. The south-central section is the only unglaciated part of the state and contains varied surface features caused by erosion. Among them are sharp ridges, knolls, bluffs, natural bridges, and caves.
About four-fifths of Indiana's surface drainage is southwestward to the Ohio River, mainly by way of the Wabash River and its chief tributary, the White. The northern one-fifth of the state has drainage eastward to Lake Erie, northward to Lake Michigan, and westward to the Mississippi River. More than a dozen fairly large lakes have been created by damming various rivers. Many small glacial lakes dot the northern part of the state, which in places is poorly drained and marshy.
Indiana has a continental type of climate with cold winters and hot, humid summers. Average January temperatures range between 25° F. (-4° C.) and 32° F. (0° C.), increasing from north to south; average July temperatures are near 75° F. (24° C.) throughout the state.
Annual precipitation ranges from about 35 inches (890 mm) in the north to 44 inches (1,120 mm) in the south. Snowfall is moderate throughout Indiana except in the northwest. There, cold air passing over warmer Lake Michigan water and then into Indiana causes deep snow each year.
Tornadoes, violent thunderstorms, and blizzards occasionally strike the state.
Indiana's state flower is the peony.Forests once covered most of Indiana but were long ago cut for lumber and to create farmland. Today, forests cover only about one-sixth of the state and consist almost entirely of second-growth hardwoods. Oak, hickory, elm, ash, cottonwood, sycamore, maple, and beech are the chief trees. Southern Indiana is the most heavily forested part of the state.
The tall-grass prairies that once covered perhaps 20 per cent of Indiana were long ago converted to farmland.
| Interesting facts about Indiana | |||
| The Raggedy Ann doll was created in Indianapolis in 1914. Marcella Gruelle found one of her grandmother's old, battered dolls and brought it to her father, Johnny Gruelle, a cartoonist. Gruelle applied a new face and two buttons for eyes and began making up stories about the doll for his daughter. Later, a long-time friend of Gruelle's mother presented him with the original twin of the doll. The doll names of Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy were taken from poems by Gruelle's friend James Whitcomb Riley. Gruelle eventually wrote down the stories he had told his daughter, and they have been published as the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy Books. | |||
| The first professional baseball game was played in Fort Wayne on May 4, 1871. The Fort Wayne Kekiongas defeated the Cleveland Forest Citys, 2-0. | |||
| The town of Santa Claus receives more than half a million packages, letters, and cards for remailing during the Christmas season. The town, named in 1852, has the only U.S. post office with the name Santa Claus. | |||
| The first long-distance automobile race in the United States on a track took place on May 30, 1911, at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Ray Harroun won the 500-mile (805-kilometer) race, averaging a speed of 74.59 miles (120.04 kilometers) per hour. | |||
