Editing Evansville, Indiana (section)

==History==
{{main|History of Evansville, Indiana}}

=== Establishment and early history ===
There has been a continuous human presence in the area that became Evansville from at least 8,000 BC by [[Paleo-Indians]]. Archaeologists have identified several archaic and ancient sites in and near Evansville, with the most complex at [[Angel Mounds]]. This was built and occupied from about AD 900 to about AD 1600, just before the arrival of Europeans to North America.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.angelmounds.org/about-us-2/angel-mounds/|title=ANGEL MOUNDS|website=Friends of Angel Mounds|access-date=27 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170218070441/http://www.angelmounds.org/about-us-2/angel-mounds/|archive-date=18 February 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

Following the abandonment of Angel Mounds between the years 1400 and 1450, tribes of the historic [[Miami people|Miami]], [[Shawnee]], [[Piankeshaw]], [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]], [[Lenape|Delaware]] and other [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] peoples were known to be in the area. French hunters and trappers were among the first Europeans to come to the area, using [[Vincennes, Indiana|Vincennes]] as a base of operations for fur trading. As a testament to the Ohio River's grandeur, early French explorers named it ''La Belle Rivière'' ("The Beautiful River").  The land encompassing Evansville was formally relinquished by the [[Lenape|Delaware]] in 1805 to [[William Henry Harrison|General William Henry Harrison]], then governor of the [[Indiana Territory]].

The city of Evansville, Indiana was founded in 1812 and incorporated in 1817. It is situated on an [[Meander|oxbow]] in the [[Ohio River]], and is often referred to as the "Crescent Valley" or "River City".

[[Image:Evans.jpg|thumb|upright|left|[[Robert Morgan Evans]]]]

On March 27, 1812, [[Hugh McGary Jr.]] purchased about 441 acres and named it "McGary's Landing". In 1814, to attract more people, McGary renamed his village "Evansville" in honor of [[Robert Morgan Evans|Colonel Robert Morgan Evans]]. Evansville incorporated in 1817 and was designated as the county seat on January 7, 1818. The county was named for Henry Vanderburgh, a deceased chief judge of the Indiana Territorial Supreme Court.<ref name="Patry">{{cite book|author=Patry, Robert|title=City of the Four Freedoms|publisher=Robert Patry and friends of Willard Library|year=1996|pages=11–15}}</ref><ref name="Morlock">{{cite book|author=Morlock, James|title=The Evansville Story |publisher=James Morlock|year=1956}}</ref>

Evansville became a thriving commercial town with a river trade, and the town began to expand outside of its original footprint. Evansville's west side was for many years cut off from the city's main part by [[Pigeon Creek (Indiana)|Pigeon Creek]] and the factories that developed along it, making the creek an industrial corridor. The land comprising the former town of [[Lamasco]] was platted in 1837 and was annexed in 1870.

=== 18th and 19th centuries ===
Evansville's economy received a boost in the early 1830s when Indiana unveiled plans to build the [[Wabash and Erie Canal|longest canal in the world]], a 400-mile ditch to connect the Great Lakes at [[Toledo, Ohio]] with the inland rivers at Evansville. The project was intended to open Indiana to commerce and improve transportation from [[New Orleans]] to [[New York City]]. The project bankrupted the state and was so poorly engineered that it would not hold water. By the time the [[Wabash and Erie Canal]] was finished in 1853, Evansville's first railroad, [[Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad]], was opened to Terre Haute.<ref name="Morlock"/> The expansion of railroads in this territory had made the canal obsolete. Only two flat barges ever made the entire trip.<ref name="Evansville Living">{{cite news | title=Remember When | work=Evansville Living | year=2012 | author=Coures, Kelley}}</ref> The canal basin at Fifth and Court street in downtown Evansville became the site of a new courthouse in 1891.<ref name="Evansville Living" />

The era of Evansville's greatest growth occurred in the second half of the 19th century, following the disruptions of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. The city was a major stop for steamboats along the Ohio River, and it was the home port for a number of companies engaged in trade via the river.<ref>Roberts, Charles E. ''Evansville, Her Commerce and Manufacturers''. Evansville: 1874.</ref> Coal mining, manufacturing, and hardwood lumber was a major source of economic activity. By 1900, Evansville was one of the world's largest hardwood furniture centers, with 41 factories employing approximately 2,000 workers. Railroads eventually became more important and in 1887 the [[Louisville and Nashville Railroad|L&N Railroad]] constructed a bridge across the Ohio River.<ref>{{cite book |last=Morlock |first=James E. |chapter=The Railroad Builders in Evansville |title=Was It Yesterday? |editor=James E. Morlock |place=Evansville |publisher=University of Evansville Press |year=1980}}</ref> Along with a major rail yard southwest of Evansville in Howell, which was annexed in 1916 and completed the city's counterclockwise march around the horseshoe bend.

Throughout this period, Evansville's main ethnic groups consisted of Protestant Scotch-Irish from the South, Catholic Irish coming for canal or railroad work, New England businessmen, Germans fleeing Europe after the 1848 revolutions, and [[freedmen]] from western Kentucky.<ref>Gilbert, F.M. (1910) ''History of the City of Evansville and Vanderburgh County'', Vol. I. Chicago: Pioneer Publishing Company.</ref> By the [[United States Census, 1890|1890 census]], Evansville ranked as the 56th-largest urban area in the United States, but it was surpassed in population by other cities in the early 1900s.<ref>{{cite web |title=Table 12. Population of the 100 Largest Urban Places: 1890 |date=June 15, 1998 |publisher=U.S. Bureau of the Census |url=https://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab12.txt|access-date=2006-05-02|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060424121352/http://www.census.gov/population/documentation/twps0027/tab12.txt |archive-date=2006-04-24}}</ref> As the new century began, the city continued to develop to its eastern areas. Manufacturing also took off, particularly in the automobile and refrigeration industries.

[[File:Graham Brothers Truck Plant, Evansville, Indiana.jpg|thumb|left|Final stage of truck assembly at Graham Brothers Truck Plant in Evansville, 1920]]

=== 20th and 21st centuries ===
{{See also|Ohio River flood of 1937}}
The Graham brothers, Ray, Robert, and Joseph, got their start with a successful glass factory in Evansville. After they sold it in 1907, the glass factory became Libbey-Owens-Ford. In 1916, seeing the need for a dependable truck, the Graham brothers entered the truck chassis business. Evansville was home to Graham Brothers Trucks from then until 1929. The dependability of Graham trucks was due in part to their use of Torbensen internal gear drive rear axles.

In 1921, after the death of both Dodge brothers, Graham Brothers started selling 1.5 ton pickups through Dodge dealers. (Dodge did not manufacture trucks at the time). These vehicles had Graham chassis and some Dodge parts. Dodge Brothers bought a controlling interest in Graham Brothers in 1925, picking up the rest in 1926.<ref>{{cite web|title=Graham Brothers|date=June 21, 2022 |url=https://www.allpar.com/trucks/graham-brothers.html}}</ref>

The city saw exponential growth in the early twentieth century with the production of lumber and the manufacturing of furniture. By 1920, Evansville had more than two dozen furniture companies. In the decades of the 1920s and 1930s, city leaders attempted to improve Evansville's transportation position and successfully lobbied to be on the Chicago-to-Miami "Dixie Bee Highway" ([[U.S. Route 41 in Indiana|U.S. Highway 41]]). A bridge was built across the Ohio River in 1932 and in that same decade steps were taken to develop an airport.

But the [[Ohio River flood of 1937]] covered 500 city blocks in Evansville, resulting in a major crisis.<ref>{{cite book |last=Van Keuren |first=Ernest C. |display-authors=et al |chapter=The Evansville Flood |title=Evansville's Great Flood, 1937 |place=Evansville |publisher=University of Evansville Press |year=1987}}{{full citation needed|date=June 2022|reason=Did not find book with this author/date}}</ref> With steamboats less necessary to the local economy, city and federal officials responded to the flood and its destruction by constructing more and higher levees: construction that penned and hid the Ohio River behind a barrier of earthen berms and concrete walls.<ref>{{cite news |author=Husk, Kim |title=River Fortress Would Protect Evansville |work=The Evansville Courier |date=23 July 1993}}</ref>

During [[World War II]], Evansville was a major center of industrial production which helped revive the regional economy after the [[Great Depression]]. A huge, 45-acre shipyard complex was constructed on the riverfront east of St. Joseph Avenue for the production of oceangoing LSTs ([[Landing Ship, Tank|Landing Ship-Tanks]]). The Evansville Shipyard was the nation's largest inland producer of LSTs. The Plymouth factory was converted into a plant which turned out "bullets by the billions," and many other companies switched over to the manufacture of war material.<ref>{{cite web|title=Chrysler Goes to War |url=http://wpchryslermuseum.org/document.doc?id=72|access-date=7 March 2012}}{{dead link|date=September 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}}</ref> In 1942, an aircraft factory was constructed adjacent to the airport north of the city for the manufacture of the Republic P-47D fighter aircraft, the [[P-47 Thunderbolt|legendary P-47 Thunderbolt]]. Evansville produced a total of 6,242 P-47s, almost half of the P-47s made nationally during the war.<ref>{{cite news| last=Lucas| first=John| title=Airplanes, especially P-47s, are city man's passion| work=[[Evansville Courier & Press]]| date=2006-10-16| access-date=2007-06-03| url=http://www.courierpress.com/news/2006/oct/18/airplanes-especially-p-47s-are-city-mans-passion/}}</ref>

After the war, Evansville's manufacturing base of automobiles, household appliances, and farm equipment benefited from growing post-war demand. A growing housing demand also caused residential development to leap north and east of the city. However, between 1955 and 1963, a nationwide recession hit Evansville. Among other closures, Servel (which produced refrigerators) went out of business and Chrysler ended its local operations. The economy was saved from near total collapse by 28 businesses that moved into the area, including [[Whirlpool Corporation|Whirlpool]], [[Alcoa]], and [[General Electric]].

During the final third of the 20th century, Evansville became the hub of the tri-state region's commercial, medical, and service industries. A 1990s economic spurt was fueled by the growth of the [[University of Southern Indiana]]. The arrival of giant [[Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana|Toyota]] and [[AK Steel Holding Corporation|AK Steel]] manufacturing plants into nearby [[Gibson County, Indiana|Gibson]] and [[Spencer County, Indiana|Spencer]] Counties respectively, as well as [[Bally's Evansville|Casino Aztar]] (now Bally's), Indiana's first gaming boat, also contributed to the growth of jobs. As the twenty-first century began, Evansville continued in a steady pace of economic diversification and stability.

On December 6, 2022, in recognition of the city's massive production efforts during World War II, it was announced that Evansville had been designated Indiana's American [[World War II Heritage City]] by the [[National Park Service]].