Editing Evansville, Indiana (section)

=== 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.