Evansville, Indiana

Settled by pioneer immigrants some 200 years ago, the city of Evansville is situated on a gentle horseshoe bend on the Ohio River. The first cabin built in Evansville was built in 1809, home of George Miller. As testament to the Ohio's grandeur, the early French explorers named it La Belle Riviere ("The Beautiful River"). Before the pioneers, Evansville was home first to an ancient community of Native Americans called the Mississippians. Evansville was laid out in 1817, and was named in honor of Robert Morgan Evans (1783-1844), one of its founders, who was an officer under then General William Henry Harrison in the War of 1812.
The historic Reitz Home Museum. It soon became a thriving commercial town, with an extensive river trade, was incorporated in 1819, and received a city charter in 1847. The completion of the Wabash and Erie Canal, which connected the Great Lakes to the Ohio River, greatly accelerated the city's growth. Evansville's first railroad company, Evansville & Crawfordsville Railroad, was built in 1850. By the U.S. census of 1890 Evansville ranked as the 56th largest urban area in the United States, a rank it gradually fell from in the early 1900s.
The first bridge to cross the Ohio River and connect Evansville with Henderson, Kentucky, was built in 1932. After the devastating Ohio River flood of 1937, the city established the Evansville-Vanderburgh Levee Authority District which built a system of earth levees, concrete walls, and pumping stations designed to protect the city.
During World War II, Evansville was the largest inland producer of LSTs (Tank Landing Ships). Evansville also produced a specific line of the P-47 thunderbolt known as the P-47Ds. The type of plane was also produced in Farmingdale on Long Island, New York. The Evansville craft were given the suffix "-Ra" while the Farmingdale were given the suffix "-Re". Evansville produced a total 110 P-47s and 167 LSTs during the war.
In the early 1950s, industrial production in the city expanded at a rapid pace. Culturally, Evansville also evolved in the 1950s with the construction of subdivisions on the outer reaches of the community. This shift in population led to other developments as shopping started to shift from the downtown area into suburban shopping centers.
During the final third of the 20th century, the transition was made to a commercial, medical, and service hub for the entire tri-state region. A 1990s economic spurt was fueled by the growth of the University of Southern Indiana, which now has 10,000 students, and the arrival of giant Toyota and AK Steel plants as well as Casino Aztar, Indiana's first gaming boat.