Terre Haute, Indiana

Terre Haute (IPA: ) is a city in Vigo County, Indiana near the state's western border with Illinois. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 60,614. The city is the county seat of Vigo County. Its current Mayor is Kevin W. Burke and its zip codes are in the range of 478xx.

Terre Haute is also the title of a novel by Will Aitken.

Geography

Terre Haute is at (39.469586, -87.389762), alongside the eastern bank of the Wabash River in western Indiana.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 83.1 km² (32.1 mi²). 80.9 km² (31.2 mi²) of it is land and 2.2 km² (0.9 mi²) of it (2.68%) is water.

The city of Terre Haute has been called "The Crossroads of America" because it is located at the intersection of the two major roadways: the National Road and U.S. 41 (locally, "third street"). Terre Haute is located 77 miles southwest of Indianapolis and within 185 miles of Chicago, St. Louis, Louisville, and Cincinnati.

In the early 1970s, Interstate 70 was built, and the community's major shopping area moved south to the interchange. U.S. 40 still runs through the downtown area as of 2005, but the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) plans to transfer the route number to Indiana State Road 46 and Interstate 70 through the Terre Haute area once the new Indiana State Road 641 bypass is completed, with the old route, Wabash Avenue, passing into city and county hands.

In addition to the downtown business district and the south side, there are several other smaller business districts in the City. The first suburban shopping area was Twelve Points, on the northeast side of town; later, Idaho Station developed near Seventh Street and Lockport Road. In the post-WWII era, auto-centered shopping developed on the east side at Meadows. Plaza North is another important shopping area in the northern city neighborhoods. For more than 150 yearsTerre Haute has been the self-proclaimed capital of the Wabash Valley.

The physical geography of the city is dominated by the Wabash River, which forms the western border of the city. The city itself lies on a high, flat plain that rarely floods. Small bluffs east side of city mark the edge of the historic flood plain. Lost Creek and Honey Creek drain the northern and southern sections of the city, respectively. In the late 1800s (particularly during the Terre Haute Oil Craze of 1889), several oil and mineral wells were productive in and near the center of the city but those have not been tapped for many years.

History

Vigo County Courthouse

Terre Haute downtown area, looking southwest

Terre Haute downtown area, looking east

ISU Campus

Clabber Girl factory complex

The name of the city is derived from the French phrase terre haute (pronounced in French), meaning "high land," and was used by the French explorers in the area in the early 18th century to describe the plateau-like rise of the land next to the Wabash River (See French colonization of the Americas). During "Tecumseh's War" in 1811, the construction of Fort Harrison during an expedition led by William Henry Harrison marked the known beginning of a permanent population of European-Americans—a Wea village called Weautano (also known as "Rising Sun" and "Old Orchard Town") already existed near the fort. The fort was defended from a British-inpired attack by an estimated 600 Native Americans during the Battle of Fort Harrison on September 4, 1812 by Captain Zachary Taylor. The orchards and meadows kept by the local Wea populations became the site of present-day Terre Haute, a few miles south of Fort Harrison. Before 1830, the few remaining Wea had departed under pressure from white settlement.

The village of Terre Haute, then a part of Knox County, Indiana was platted in 1816. Its early identity came as an agricultural and pork-packing center and as a port on the then-navigable Wabash River for steamboats and other river-craft. Between 1835 and late 1839, Terre Haute was headquarters for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under Major Cornelius A. Ogden during the construction of the National Road. As a result a number of West Point graduates and other highly educated people located in the town. Wealthy Terre Haute entrepreneur Chauncey Rose built The Prairie House, a fancy hotel, in 1838 primarily to accommodate those families. In 1855, the name of The Prairie House was changed to the Terre Haute House.

The anticipation of the arrival of the Wabash and Erie Canal, the longest manmade body of water in the western hemisphere, also brought prosperity to the community. The canal finally reached Terre Haute in October 1849 but, founded by Chauncey Rose, the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad began operations between Terre Haute and Indianapolis in February 1852. The name of the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad (West of Indianapolis) soon was changed to the Terre Haute and Indianapolis Railroad and it became the operating company of the Vandalia Railroad System. The community quickly gained the reputation as a transportation hub.

In 1832, Terre Haute became a town and, in May 1853, elected to become a city. After the American Civil War, it was an industrial and mining center with iron and steel mills, hominy plants and, late in the 19th Century, distilleries, breweries, coal mines and coal operating companies. Business boomed. Terre Haute's Famous "Four-Cornered" Race Track was the site of more than 20 world harness racing records and helped trigger the city's reputation as a sporting center. The bustling economy led to several institutes of higher education â€" Saint Mary-of-the Woods Institute (now Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College), John Covert's Terre Haute Female College, Indiana State Normal School (now Indiana State University), Rose Polytechnic Institute of Technology (now Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology) and Coates College for Women â€" culture and a reputation in the arts, and a tradition of strong union activity which resulted in hosting a two-day conclave beginning on August 3, 1881 of the National Trade Union Congress, renamed the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions of the U.S. and Canada. In 1886, the Federation was renamed the American Federation of Labor. The city also produced labor leader Eugene V. Debs.

The city also developed a reputation for being "wide open", with gambling and a well-developed "Red Light District" that was not fully eliminated until urban renewal of the riverfront in the 1960s. During the second decade of the 20th Century, Terre Haute was rocked by political scandal and that reputation persisted for several decades. In 1955, Terre Haute was labeled Sin City by the monthly magazine, Stag. Although Terre Haute has had different nicknames ("The Crossroads of America," for one), "Sin City" seemed to be its most popular moniker for several decades.

Prohibition had a major impact on the city's economy, closing several distilleries and all but one brewery, which reduced its payroll by 70% and converted to produce root beer. It also affected the four large glass manufacturing firms. Two eventually closed. The Root Glass Company survived, primarily because it secured the patent for the Coca-Cola bottle in 1915. Two of the distilleries were sold to Commercial Solvents Corporation, which acquired the rights to produce acetone from Chaim Weizmann in exchange for royalties. While some aspects of the economy seemed to be boom in the mid-1920s, the owners of a downtown hotel, the Terre Haute House, decided to demolish their existing building and erect a grand edifice befitting such a modern city as Terre Haute, and in 1928, the new Terre Haute House opened, attracting the wealthy—famous and infamous alike—to its luxurious splendor. No less of a figure than Al Capone is rumored to have been a guest in the new hotel's early years. The beloved hotel, which closed in 1970, has been the subject of repeated debate in the community. It was recently sold by a prominent local family to a local developer, who demolished it and subsequently sold the property to Dora Brothers Hospitality group, which intends to build a new hotel on the site, Hilton Garden Inn: Terre Haute House, thus maintaining the history of a hotel on the intersection of 7th and Wabash.

Eventually, however, the coal mines were spent, the importance of the railroads declined, the town was labeled a "bad labor town" following the Terre Haute General Strike of 1935 and the city began a decline from which it has never fully recovered. Although some remnants of its glory days remain and Terre Haute is home to some national events, it was recently called "A Model of Stagnation" by The Indianapolis Star. The community also is known for the June 11, 2001, execution of Timothy McVeigh at the Terre Haute Federal Penitentiary for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Historical figures who called Terre Haute their birthplace or home include:
*Actors & Actresses
**Bubba the Love Sponge (born Todd Clem) (Radio personality, "shock jock", from Tampa Bay, Florida)
**Joseph Benti (movies, television -- anchor, "CBS Morning News" 1966-1970)
**Tony Bruce (Screenwriter, Indie Film Producer "Redefining Normal")
**Marie Crisp (silent movies)
**Scatman Crothers (musician, movies, television)
**Alice Fischer (theater)
**Ross Ford (movies, television - "Meet Millie")
**Skeets Gallagher (vaudeville, movies)
**Jess Hahn (French movies)
**Maud Hosford (theater, movies)
**Burl Ives (musician, actor, movies)
**Chubby Johnson (movies)
**Joe Keaton (vaudeville, movies, father of Buster Keaton)
**Dave Madden (movies, television - "The Partridge Family")
**Rose Melville (vaudeville, theater, silent movies)
**Alvy Moore (movies, television - "Green Acres")
**Maurine Powers (silent movies)
**Edward Roseman (vaudeville, movies)
**Valeska Suratt (theater, silent movies, vaudeville)
**Bill Thompson (voice actor, Fibber McGee and Molly)
**Jerry Van Dyke (television, movies)
*Artists
**Caroline Peddle Ball (Tiffany & Company designer)
**Amalia Kussner Coudert (artist, miniature portrait painter)
**John Rogers Cox (painter)
**James Farrington Gookins (painter)
**Harriet Goodhue Hosmer (American sculptor)
**Janet Scudder (sculptor)
*Athletes
**Vic Aldridge (baseball)
**Bruce Baumgartner (wrestling, James E. Sullivan Award winner, U.S. Olympic gold medalist)
**Gregory Bell (track and field, U.S. Olympic gold medalist)
**Bill Butland (baseball)
**Cam Cameron (football, football coach)
**Max Carey (baseball, National Baseball Hall of Fame)
**Mordecai Three Finger Brown (baseball, National Baseball Hall of Fame)
**Norm Cottom (basketball)
**Josh Devore (baseball)
**Terry Dischinger (basketball, U.S. Olympic gold medalist)
**Brian Dorsett (baseball)
**Jumbo James Elliott (baseball)
**George Cecil Ferguson (baseball)
**Tiger Jack Fox (boxing)
**Frank Hamblen (player, NBA coach)
**Mark Jackson (football)
**Tommy John (baseball)
**Neil Johnston (baseball, basketball, Basketball Hall of Fame)
**Duane Klueh (basketball)
**Bob Slick Leonard (basketball)
**Clyde Lovellette (basketball, U.S. Olympic gold medalist, Basketball Hall of Fame)
**Tony McGee (football)
**Paul Moss (football)
**Art Nehf (baseball)
**Carl Nicks (basketball)
**Sam "Kid" Slaughter (boxing)
**Jerry Sturm (football)
**Charles "Bud" Taylor (National Boxing Association World Bantamweight Champion, International Boxing Hall of Fame)
**Harry Taylor (baseball)
**Kurt Thomas (gymnastics, James E. Sullivan Award winner)
**Anthony Thompson (football)
**Paul Dizzy Trout (baseball)
**John Wooden (basketball, Basketball Hall of Fame)
*Musicians
**Carrie B. Adams (musician, composer)
**Paul Dresser ("On The Banks of the Wabash, Far Away")
**Carl Ellis Eppert (classical/choral composer)
**Edwin Franko Goldman (bandleader, composer)
**Alfred Kussner (composer)
**Mick Mars - born Bob Deal (Motley Crue guitarist)
**Claude Thornhill (pianist, aranger, bandleader, composer)
**Wilton Sisters (singing vaudeville duet)
*Politicians
**Simon Bamberger (governor of Utah)
**Birch Bayh (U.S. Senator)
**Evan Bayh (governor of Indiana and U.S. Senator)
**Thomas H. Blake (U.S. Congressman, Commissioner of the General Land Office; resident trustee, Wabash and Erie Canal)
**Newton Booth (governor of California, U.S. Senator)
**Joseph Gurney Cannon (U.S. Congressman and Speaker of the United States House of Representatives)
** P. Pete Chalos (four-term mayor of Terre Haute)
**John Wesley Davis (physician, U.S. Congressman, Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, governor of the Oregon Territory)
**Eugene Victor Debs (Socialist candidate for President)
**Abram A. Hammond (lieutenant governor of Indiana, governor of Indiana)
**Bayless W. Hanna (Indiana Attorney General, American diplomat)
**Edward Allen Hannegan (U.S. Congressman, U.S. Senator, American diplomat)
**William H. Harrison (Wyoming congressman) (U.S. Congressman)
**Elisha Mills Huntington (Commissioner of the General Land Office, federal judge, co-founder of the Cannelton Cotton Mill)
**Virginia Jenckes (first U.S. Congresswoman from Indiana)
**John Edward Lamb (U.S. Congressman, U.S. District Attorney}
**Thomas Henry Nelson (U.S. Ambassador to Chile under President Abraham Lincoln and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico under President Ulysses Grant)
**P.B.S. Pinchback (politician, governor of Louisiana)
**Edward James Roye (merchant, president of Liberia)
**Everett Sanders (U.S. Congressman, secretary to President Calvin Coolidge, chairman of the Republican National Committee)
**John Gould Stephenson (fifth Librarian of Congress)
**Richard Wigginton Thompson (U.S. Congressman and Secretary of the Navy under President Rutherford B. Hayes)
**Ralph Tucker (five-term mayor of Terre Haute)
**John Palmer Usher (Indiana Attorney General and Secretary of Interior under President Abraham Lincoln)
**Daniel Wolsey Voorhees (U.S. Congressman and U.S. Senator)
**James Whitcomb (Commissioner of the General Land Office, governor of Indiana and U.S. Senator)
*Writers
**Lyman Abbott (magazine publisher and editor)
**James Solomon Barcus (The Governor's Boss)
**Edward Price Bell (American journalist, 1931 Nobel Peace Prize nominee)
**Claude Bowers (journalist, author, diplomat)
**Winnifred Harper Cooley (lecturer, the "female Walter Winchell," I Knew Them When!)
**George W. Cutter (The Song of Steam, Buena Vista)
**Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy)
**Max Ehrmann (A Prayer, Desiderata)
**Philip Jose Farmer (science fiction author)
**Ida Husted Harper (suffragist, newspaper editor, History of Woman Suffrage, The Life and Work of Susan B. Anthony)
**John Jakes (Kent Family Chronicles)
**Grover Jones (author, screenwriter, motion picture director)
**Virginia Sorensen, also known as Virginia Sorenson (winner of 1957 Newbery Medal)
*Others
**Charles G. Abrell (Medal of Honor, Korean War)
**Ray Arcel (boxing trainer, International Boxing Hall of Fame)
**Horace G. Burt (president Union Pacific Railroad)
**Ellen Church Marshall (First airline stewardess)
**Ray S. Cline (author, CIA administrator)
**Josephus Collett (railroad executive)
**H. R. Cox, also known as Herald Rea Cox (bacteriogist)
**Charles Cruft (general) (teacher, newspaper publisher, lawyer, Union Civil War general)
**Ernest R. Davidson (chemist, educator, National Medal of Science recipient)
**Lee Alvin DuBridge (educator, physicist)
**Crawford Fairbanks (industrialist, philanthropist)
**Mari Hulman George (philanthropist)
**Tony George (business executive, president of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway)
**Hillary A. Gobin (theologian, educator, college president)
**Robert Hayes Gore (newspaper executive, author, Governor of Puerto Rico)
**Thomas Lomar Gray (educator, engineer, college administrator)
**Robert K. Greenleaf (business executive, author, educator)
**William D. Griswold (teacher, lawyer, railroad exective)
**Mother Theodore Guerin (educator, religious leader, founder of Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College)
**William King Harvey ("America's James Bond")
**Eddie Hickey (basketball coach, Basketball Hall of Fame)
**Theodore Hudnut ("America's Hominy King," inventor)
**Sam Hulbert (educator, scientist, inventor)
**Tony Hulman (industrialist, philanthropist)
**Mary Fendrich Hulman (philanthropist)
**Wiles Robert Hunter (social reformer, author, golf course architect)
**Johnson brothers of Johnson Outboards (marine engine and aviation pioneers)
**Eva Mozes Kor (founder of CANDLES Holocaust Museum)
**Bernard Kuppenheimer (clothier)
**Jim Lovell (astronaut)
**Abraham Markle (miller, Canadian Legislator, soldier, village proprietor)
**William Riley McKeen (banker, railroad executive, industrialist, philanthropist)
**Vernon R. McMillan (sporting goods)
**Dr. Thomas Corwin Mendenhall (American physicist)
**Jeremiah Mugivan (circus entrepreneur)
**Dr. William K. Nasser (cardiologist)
**William A. Noyes (chemist, educator)
**Bede O'Connor (co-founder of St. Meinrad Archabbey)
**Cynthia Shepard Perry (diplomat)
**Frank Popoff (business executive)
**Orville Redenbacher (America's pop corn king)
**Harry Reeves (Disney animator)
**James W. Reid (American architect, Hotel del Coronado)
**Oscar Rood (Medal of Honor, American Civil War)
**Chauncey Rose (railroad baron, philanthropist)
**Peter J. Ryan (Medal of Honor, American Civil War)
**Abe Silverstein (engineer, space aerodynamcist)
**John Tenbrook Sterling (Medal of Honor, American Civil War)
**Jakob Thornberry (musician)
**Tracey Trench (motion picture producer)
**Edward Tryon (astrophysicist, cosmologist)
**Kelly Monroe "K.M." Turner (inventor of dictograph)
**Leroy A. Wilson (business executive)
**Dr. William Wood, commonly known as Dr. William Maxwell Wood (naval surgeon, first Surgeon General of the U.S. Navy)

Terre Haute's history is the subject of a weekly public radio program based in Bloomington, Indiana, called "Hometown with Tom Roznowski," which describes various aspects of Terre Haute in the summer of 1926. "Terre Haute: Queen City of the Wabash," by Vigo County Historian Mike McCormick, is a concise history of the city published in November 2005 by Arcadia Publishing Company.

Transportation

Airports

*Terre Haute International Airport - Hulman Field (HUF) serves Terre Haute and Vigo County. However, there is currently no scheduled airline or charter service flying out of Hulman Field. Most flights are from pilot school students from Ivy Tech and Indiana State and the F-16 fighter jets of the Indiana Air National Guard's 181st Fighter Wing, which has been recommended for realignment to non-flying status. A local unit of the U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, the Civil Air Patrol also conducts operations out of Hulman Field.
*Sky King Airport - private airport situated about two miles north of Terre Haute on U.S. Highway 41.

Highways

*Terre Haute is served by two exits on I-70. A third exit serves West Terre Haute, Indiana and provides easy access to Terre Haute.

In addition, U.S. Highway 40 provides east-west access to, through and from Terre Haute and U.S. Highway 41, provides north-south access to, through and from Terre Haute.

Transit

*The Terre Haute City Bus service is mostly limited between 1st and 25th Streets.

Education

Terre Haute is home to Indiana State University, a public university with a student population just over 11,000. The Princeton Review has named ISU one of the nation's "best value" undergraduate institutions. The Princeton Review has also placed ISU on its "Best in the Midwest" list of colleges and universities. The private engineering school Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology is located just east of the city, and is consistently rated one of the top engineering schools in the nation. The vocational schools of Ivy Tech State College and Indiana Business College are also located in the city. Saint Mary-of-the-Woods College, a four-year, private Catholic women's college is north of West Terre Haute, Indiana.

Terre Haute is served by the Vigo County School Corporation.

Other facts

In 1998, Reader's Digest magazine named Terre Haute one of the 50 best places to raise a family. This honor was bestowed after a statistical and demographic review of 301 metropolitan areas throughout the U.S.

Terre Haute is a familiar address to many as it is home to the Columbia House mail-order club. It also is the home of Sony DADC.

The original curved Coca-Cola bottle was designed and first produced by the Root Glass Company, which was based in Terre Haute. In the mid-1990s, Coca-Cola honored this part of its past by introducing a short-lived Coke bottle-shaped can that was sold only in Terre Haute and one other city.

Terre Haute is the location of a large Federal prison which is the location of the United States Government's Death Row. Timothy McVeigh was put to death at Terre Haute in 2001 for carrying out the Oklahoma City Bombing.

The city is known to have one of the highest per-capita number of restaurants in the nation, many of which are chain restaurants. There are several exceptional restaurants in the city which are unique to Terre Haute.

Terre Haute is also home to the CANDLES HOLOCAUST MUSEUM [1]. CANDLES stands for Children of Auschwitz Nazi Deadly Lab Experiment Survivors and is the creation of a survivor from that deadly period of history - Eva Mozes Kor of Terre Haute. Her museum attracts visitors from around the world and is completely Ms. Kor's gift of her memories and her mission to never allow the world to forget what happened in that evil place during those dark years. In 2003 the CANDLES museum was burned down in an arsonist attack by a young neo-nazi. After several charity drives by different organizations in town, it has now been rebuilt, but several pieces of irreplacable art and artifacts were destroyed.

Terre Haute has been designated a "Tree City" by the National Arbor Day Foundation.

Terre Haute was one of the primary test markets for Pringles Potato Chips

For some reason Terre Haute was the target of the dastardly plot by nazi stooges in the 1982 spoof noir movie Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid.

External links

The city

*Terre Haute Official Page
*Terre Haute Convention and Visitor's Bureau
*Terre Haute Newspaper
*Vigo County Public Library
*Criticism site; "contains Terre Haute satire in the form of drawings and photographs which are intended for amusement only."

The history

*History of Terre Haute: An excerpt from Indiana: A New Historical Guide
*Beautiful historic postcards of Terre Haute, IN
*Hometown: A Journey Through Terre Haute, IN: A documentary about Terre Haute in the 1920s.
*Rod and Gun Steakhouse: A gangster hangout in mid-1900's Terre Haute.