60 Fun Facts About Indianapolis

Indianapolis is the seat of which county, named for the Revolutionary War's 'Swamp Fox'?

Indianapolis is the county seat of Marion County; a 1970 city-county consolidation merged most county government with the city's, making the two nearly coterminous.

Indiana lawmakers chose the site of Indianapolis for their new capital in 1820 mainly for what reason?

Its central location was the whole point: commissioners sent to find a capital site in the middle of the state picked a stretch of dense forest where only a few settler families had arrived.

Alexander Ralston, who drew the plan of Indianapolis, had earlier helped Pierre L'Enfant lay out which city?

Washington, D.C. was Ralston's training ground: after working under L'Enfant there in the 1790s, he gave Indianapolis the same idea of diagonal avenues slicing across a square grid.

Where was Indiana's state capital before it moved to Indianapolis in 1825?

Corydon hosted the 1816 convention that wrote Indiana's first constitution, its delegates working outdoors in the shade of a giant elm to escape the summer heat.

Which Indianapolis nickname doubles as Indiana's official state motto?

Crossroads of America began as a boast about the many rail lines and roads that met in Indianapolis; the General Assembly made it Indiana's official state motto in 1937.

Indianapolis sits along the west fork of which waterway?

The White River proved too shallow for steamboats, so Indianapolis grew by road and rail instead.

The 'Circle City' nickname comes from what feature of the city's original plan?

A central roundabout was set aside for the governor's mansion, but no governor ever lived in the house built there in 1827, and it was torn down in 1857.

Indianapolis merged its city and county governments in 1970 under what name?

Unigov took effect on 1 January 1970 and pushed the city limits out to the county line, adding roughly a quarter of a million residents overnight.

The Indianapolis rail depot that opened in 1853 is often called America's first what?

Union station: the city's rival railroads agreed to share one depot so that passengers no longer had to cross town between separate stations, though Columbus, Ohio, opened a shared station in 1851.

The National Road, which runs through the heart of Indianapolis, was America's first what?

Federally funded major highway: Congress authorised the National Road in 1806 to tie the Ohio Valley to the East, and its path through Indianapolis survives as Washington Street.

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Indianapolis, at 284 feet, stands nearly as tall as which American landmark?

The Statue of Liberty, at 305 feet from the ground to the tip of its torch, only just tops the limestone monument, which is strung with lights each winter to become a giant Christmas tree.

The Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument in Indianapolis was first planned to honour Indiana's veterans of which war?

The Civil War was its first purpose, pressed for two decades by Indiana veterans, yet the design chosen from 70 entries came from a German architect, Bruno Schmitz of Berlin.

The Indiana World War Memorial Plaza hosts the national headquarters of which veterans' organization?

The American Legion picked Indianapolis by a vote of delegates at its founding convention in Minneapolis in November 1919, and its national headquarters has been in the city ever since.

The Indianapolis 500 is billed as the world's largest what?

Single-day sporting event: the Speedway has more than 250,000 permanent seats, and when the 100th race sold out in 2016, its local TV blackout was lifted for the first time in over 60 years.

Ray Harroun won the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 after replacing his riding mechanic with what device?

A rear-view mirror was Harroun's answer to rivals who protested that his single-seat Marmon was a hazard with nobody aboard to watch for cars coming up behind.

What does the Indy 500 winner traditionally drink in victory lane?

Milk became the tradition after Louis Meyer, a habitual buttermilk drinker, was photographed swigging from a bottle in victory lane after his 1936 win, and a dairy executive promoted the image.

How many cars traditionally start the Indianapolis 500?

The traditional field is 33 cars in eleven rows of three, a size derived from an early AAA safety formula that allowed one car for every 400 feet of track.

How long is the Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval?

The Indianapolis Motor Speedway oval measures 2.5 miles around, so drivers cover 200 laps to complete the 500-mile race.

Which Formula One world champion won the Indianapolis 500 just once, in 1969?

Mario Andretti never won at Indianapolis again after 1969: he was named the 1981 winner, then lost that victory months later when it was handed back to Bobby Unser.

The Borg-Warner Trophy, awarded each year at the Indianapolis 500, is decorated with what?

Sculpted faces of every winner since 1911 cover the trophy: each new champion sits for a sculptor, and a small silver likeness is added to the rows already there.

Which racing team owner struck a deal in 2019 to buy the Speedway and IndyCar Series from the Hulman family?

Roger Penske had already won the 500 18 times as a car owner when he took over the track from the Hulman family, who had run it since Tony Hulman bought the war-neglected Speedway in 1945.

Which NASCAR race, first run in 1994, ended the Indy 500's 78 years as the only race at the Speedway?

The Brickyard 400 drew more than 250,000 fans to its first running and was won, to the home crowd's delight, by Jeff Gordon, who had spent part of his boyhood in Indiana.

The Colts moved to Indianapolis in 1984 from which city?

Baltimore lost the Colts in the middle of the night of 28 March 1984: denied a new stadium there, owner Robert Irsay moved the team out before most fans knew a move was planned.

Which coach and quarterback led the Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI?

Tony Dungy and Peyton Manning won it in the Miami rain, the Colts forcing five Bears turnovers on the way to 29-17; Dungy became the first Black head coach to win a Super Bowl.

Before Lucas Oil Stadium opened in 2008, where did the Colts play their home games?

The RCA Dome, opened in 1984 as the Hoosier Dome, was the Colts' home until 2008 and was then demolished to expand the Indiana Convention Center.

The Indiana Pacers began in 1967 in which league?

The ABA's showcase team, the Pacers won three titles there, but the cost of joining the NBA in 1976 nearly sank them: a 1977 telethon led by coach Bobby Leonard and his wife Nancy kept the club alive.

The name of Indiana's NBA team is usually traced to harness racing and to what else?

Indy 500 pace cars and the pacers of Indiana harness racing are the usual explanation, though one account has the club announcing in 1967 that it meant to set the pace in pro basketball.

Reggie Miller earned what nickname for his clutch shooting against one particular team?

Reggie Miller was dubbed the Knick Killer for feats like scoring eight points in 8.9 seconds against New York in the 1995 playoffs; drafted 11th overall in 1987, he spent all 18 seasons with Indiana.

The Children's Museum of Indianapolis, founded in 1925, holds what world distinction?

Largest of its kind in the world, the museum began because Mary Stewart Carey came home from a visit to the Brooklyn Children's Museum set on giving Indianapolis one of its own.

Which pharmaceutical giant was founded in Indianapolis in 1876?

Eli Lilly teamed up with insulin's discoverers in Toronto and in 1923 began selling Iletin, the first commercially produced insulin, at a time when diabetes had no effective treatment.

The pharmacist who founded an Indianapolis drug giant in 1876 had earlier served as what?

A Union Army colonel by the war's end, he had led an artillery battery at Chickamauga and been held as a prisoner; a cotton plantation he then tried in Mississippi failed, and he went back to pharmacy.

Which Indianapolis-born novelist wrote Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions?

Kurt Vonnegut, born in the city in 1922, first wrote for readers there as an editor of the Echo, the daily student newspaper at Shortridge High School.

Which novel grew out of an Indianapolis-born writer's survival of the 1945 firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner of war?

Slaughterhouse-Five is named for the Dresden slaughterhouse where its author was held after his capture at the Battle of the Bulge; it took him until 1969 to turn the bombing into a novel.

Madam C. J. Walker, who moved her company to Indianapolis in 1910, built her fortune selling what?

Hair-care products were Walker's answer to her own trouble: a scalp ailment cost her much of her hair, and the remedies she worked out grew into the company whose factory she set up in Indianapolis.

Which US president practised law in Indianapolis and is buried at Crown Hill?

Benjamin Harrison ran for president in 1888 from his own doorstep, speaking day after day to the delegations that came to his Delaware Street house; he died in Indianapolis in 1901.

Which Indianapolis-born gangster of the 1930s is buried in the city's Crown Hill Cemetery?

John Dillinger, shot dead by federal agents outside Chicago's Biograph Theater in July 1934, was buried at Crown Hill, which also holds a president and three vice presidents.

Which sports organisation moved its national headquarters to Indianapolis in 1999?

The NCAA brought its national office to downtown Indianapolis in July 1999 and opened its Hall of Champions museum beside it a year later, a prize for a city that had sold itself as a home for amateur sport.

Which writer of 'Little Orphant Annie' was known across America as the Hoosier Poet?

James Whitcomb Riley gave the land for the city's Central Library so that every Indianapolis child could get at books, and he lies at the highest point of Crown Hill.

Which late-night host, born in Indianapolis in 1947, went on to front NBC's Late Night and CBS's Late Show?

David Letterman began as a wisecracking weatherman on Indianapolis television, left for Los Angeles in 1975, and went on to a late-night run that outlasted even Johnny Carson's.

Which of these food brands was launched in Indianapolis in 1921?

Wonder Bread got both its name and its balloon-dotted wrapper from an international balloon race at the Speedway, which left a Taggart Baking Company executive filled with wonder.

Which pie, an Indiana classic with a plain custard-like filling, is nicknamed 'Hoosier pie'?

Sugar cream pie caught on because it takes only pantry staples, cream, sugar and a little thickener; Quaker, Amish and Shaker settlers are each credited with it in one account or another.

Which burger chain, founded in Normal, Illinois, in 1934, later made Indianapolis its headquarters?

Steak 'n Shake reached Indiana in 1954, opening a drive-in in Indianapolis three months after founder Gus Belt died; the chain's head office later followed it from Illinois to the city.

Which Indianapolis restaurant, open since 1902, is a James Beard America's Classic famed for its shrimp cocktail?

St. Elmo Steak House was opened by Joe Stahr, a nautical buff who named it for the patron saint of sailors; its shrimp cocktail comes under a horseradish sauce fierce enough to be famous.

In the late 1800s Indianapolis became a major centre of which industry, already famous in Chicago and Cincinnati?

Pork packing took hold after Kingan & Company, a firm from Belfast, opened a plant in Indianapolis in the 1860s, and by the 1880s meatpacking was one of the city's biggest industries.

Which jazz guitarist, famed for thumb-picking and octave solos, was born in Indianapolis?

Wes Montgomery got his first six-string guitar only at about 19; after touring with Lionel Hampton's band he came home to play Indianapolis clubs with his brothers Monk and Buddy.

Indianapolis hosted which international multi-sport event in 1987?

The Pan American Games fell to Indianapolis only after Santiago and then Quito gave them up; the city had meant to bid for 1991 and staged the 1987 Games with far less notice than hosts usually get.

The cruiser USS Indianapolis was sunk in July 1945 days after delivering parts of which weapon?

The atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima reached the Pacific aboard the cruiser; a Japanese submarine then sank her in 12 minutes, and only 316 of nearly 1,200 men lived through the days in shark-filled water that followed.

Which Indianapolis university reached the final of the national college basketball tournament in both 2010 and 2011?

Butler University lost the 2010 final to Duke by two points in its own home city, Gordon Hayward's half-court shot bouncing off the rim at the buzzer, then made the title game again a year later.

Jeremiah Sullivan coined 'Indianapolis' in 1821 by joining 'Indiana' to 'polis', the word for a city in which language?

Greek gave Sullivan 'polis', so the name simply means 'Indiana city'; lawmakers picked his coinage after turning down rival proposals that included Tecumseh and Suwarrow.

Samuel Henderson, the first mayor of Indianapolis, sold up and left the city for good to join what?

The California gold rush drew Henderson away once he had decided that railroads would leave Indianapolis little more than a stop on the line, where passengers paused only long enough for a drink of water.

Which mayor led Indianapolis into its 1970 merger of city and county government?

Richard Lugar got the merger through the legislature in 1969; by taking in the suburbs it tilted local elections, and his Republican Party kept the mayor's office until 1999.

Which 1962 high-rise was the first in Indianapolis to rise above the Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument?

The City-County Building, a 28-storey tower opened in 1962, was put up to bring city and county offices that had spilled into rented space back under one roof.

Which Triple-A baseball club, founded in 1902, is among the oldest teams in the minor leagues?

The Indianapolis Indians, playing since 1902, nearly left town when their big-league owner gave up on them in 1955; local fans bought stock in the club and became its owners.

Robert F. Kennedy's famous 1968 Indianapolis speech responded to whose assassination?

Speaking in Indianapolis on 4 April 1968, hours after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in Memphis, Robert F. Kennedy broke the news to a largely Black crowd; the city stayed calm while others rioted.

Which singer gave the last concert of his life in Indianapolis in June 1977?

Elvis Presley died seven weeks after the show; the arena where he sang came down in 2001, and a fans' committee put a plaque on the site to mark his last night on stage.

The south side of Indianapolis holds one of the largest overseas communities of which refugee group?

Burmese-Chin refugees, fleeing military rule and religious persecution in western Myanmar, began arriving in the 1990s and now number well over ten thousand around Perry Township.

The Murat Theatre sits inside which concert venue on Massachusetts Avenue in Indianapolis?

Old National Centre was built as the Murat Temple, the meeting place of the Indianapolis Shriners, which is why the building wears Middle Eastern styling.

Which bestselling YA author set his 2012 novel The Fault in Our Stars in his home city of Indianapolis?

John Green set the novel in Indianapolis, where he lives, yet the 2014 film was shot in Pittsburgh, which stood in for the Indiana capital.

Which tabletop-gaming convention, started by Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, has been based in Indianapolis since 2003?

Gen Con began in 1968 as a wargames gathering Gary Gygax organised in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, and moved from Milwaukee to the Indiana Convention Center in 2003.

Which unfinished 1830s canal, begun under a failed state improvement scheme, is a downtown Indianapolis landmark?

The Central Canal was begun in 1836 under Indiana's Mammoth Internal Improvement Act; a financial panic left the state unable to pay its debts, and work stopped in 1839 with fewer than ten miles open.