Indiana

Welcome to Indiana - known for corn, covered bridges, and the love of basketball.

Indiana's major city is Indianapolis, otherwise known as the racing city of the world. The city hosts three of the world's highest attended single day events: The Indy 500, The Brickyard 400, and the US Grand Prix Formula One race.

The first train robbery in the US happened in Indiana. In 1866, a gang called the Reno Brothers stole $13,000 off a train in Jackson County – which is approximately $250,000 in today’s money. The gang was the first to stop a moving train in a sparsely populated region where there was little risk of law enforcement interfering. The Reno Brothers continued on their crime spree until the summer of 1868 when the law eventually caught up to them. However, their style of train robbery became very popular in the west, since there are so many open plains and isolated areas. Shocker, the railroad owners did not like that. So they started designing special boxcars and safes making it harder to rob them which lead to a decrease of train robberies by the late 19th century.

There is a town called Santa Clause in Indiana. Every Christmas, they receive more than 500,000 letters for Santa.

Guess what the official Indiana’s state beverage is? It’s water. In 2007, they declared “It may not be the most creative state drink, but it’s certainly the most important.” Can’t argue that.