I finally found some blog posts that I authored a few years ago. At one point, I was a freelance writer. I wrote this for a now defunct travel blog.
If you are a fellow Hoosier like I am, you may know a lot about Indiana History. I’ve gathered a few tidbits that I found interesting for your enjoyment. So, here are the top facts about Indiana. It was fun. Photo is by me, and is from Metamora, IN.

- Parke County is not only known for the Covered Bridge Festival held in October. It has 32 covered bridges and is considered the Covered Bride Capital of the World.
- Southern Indiana has one of the richest deposits of the best limestone in the world. From New York City’s Empire State Building and Rockefeller Center in New York, to the Pentagon, the U.S. Treasury, a even more government buildings in Washington D.C. as well as 14 state capitols were built from Indiana limestone.
- Ball State University was built mostly from funds contributed by the founders of the Ball Corporation, a company than made glass canning jars.
- From 1900 to 1920 over 200 different makes of cars were built here in Indiana. Duesenbergs, Auburns, Stutzes, and Maxwells were all made here.
- If you’re traveling on U.S. 41 just north of Vincennes, there is a huge landmark, “Big Peach” in front of the produce market near Bruceville. It’s 20 feet tall and stands next to a Washington Monument replica.
- Indiana is the “Mother of Vice Presidents.” Five men from Indiana have been elected as V.P.: Schuyler Colfax, Thomas A. Hendricks, Charles W. Fairbanks, Thomas Marshall and Dan Quayle. (Edit in 2021 – Mike Pence).
- President Thomas Jefferson sent explorers Lewis and Clark to their Northwest Territory excursion out from Fort Vincennes.
- The Coco-Cola bottle was designed in Terre Haute, Indiana.
- The first rapid fire gun was patented by Richard Gatling from Indianapolis in 1862.
- Frank Sinatra made his singing debut at the Lyric Theater on February 2, 1940 with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra.
- Theme parks were invented in Indiana. The world’s very first them park opened to the public on August 3, 1946 in Santa Claus, Indiana. It was open a full nine years before Disneyland. It is still owned and operated by the same family.
- The first professional baseball game was played in Ft. Wayne on May 4, 1871.