Southwestern Indiana

Southwestern Indiana's topography is considerably more varied and complex than most of Indiana, from large tracts of forest, marshes, rolling fields, large flat valleys in the west and south, to several chains of low mountains, high hills, and sharp valleys towards the north and east. Every county in Southwestern Indiana is bounded by a river at one point, whether it be the Wabash River along the west, the Ohio River along the south, the White River, dividing the six northern counties between its two forks, or other smaller rivers. More than 50% of the boundaries of Daviess, Knox, Perry, Posey, and Spencer Counties are dictated by a river or a creek. Just under 50% of Gibson and Pike counties are dictated by a river. About 80% Knox County's boundaries are dictated by either the Wabash or the White River and its West Fork, essentially making the county a river peninsula. Additionally, over half of the area is located within the Wabash Valley Seismic Zone along with neighboring Southeastern Illinois.

Southwestern Indiana has clusters of separate towns of varying sizes and layouts. Vincennes is laid out in the French quadrangular, while Jasper and Princeton are laid out in a standard grid. Evansville is laid out in both modes of survey, with its downtown being mapped out from the river and the rest of the city being laid out in the standard grid.

In addition to various media definitions, Southwestern Indiana is also defined by most Indiana state agencies, as well as various commercial and economic regions, as an entire area. All of Southwestern Indiana's counties are in Indiana's 8th Congressional District as of 2013. Most of Southwestern Indiana is in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Evansville except for Perry County and Spencer County's Harrison Township, which are in the Archdiocese of Indianapolis. Southwestern Indiana makes up realtor region 12 in Indiana, while nine of the counties make up Economic Growth Region 11 with Daviess and Martin in Region 8.[1][2]

In addition, the southern third of Southwestern Indiana exists within the Ohio River Valley American Viticultural Area, the second-largest wine appellation in the United States. The Ohio River Valley AVA occupies all of Perry, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick Counties, nearly 90% of Gibson County, and portions of Pike and Dubois Counties in Southwestern Indiana.[3]

(T) - Establishment Date - Indiana Territory County

• As of 2013, all of Southwestern Indiana is in the 8th Congressional District.

Closeup of Southwestern Indiana: White counties are on Central Time, gray counties are on Eastern Time.

From 1966 to 2006, the five southwesternmost counties—Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick—observed Central Daylight Time. The six northern and eastern counties—Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, Perry, and Pike, since 1982—observed year-round Eastern Standard Time as did much of the rest of the state.

In 2006, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels pushed through legislation for all Indiana counties to observe Daylight Timeon Eastern Time onto Eastern Daylight Time. This action threw both Southwestern and Northwestern Indiana into chaos as counties started to debate whether to return to the Central Time Zone or remain in the Eastern Time Zone and start observing daylight time. This resulted, on April 2, 2006, in all of Southwestern Indiana being in the Central Time Zone.

Not even a month after the change, people began to complain about some of the same problems that people who lived in the original Central Daylight Time counties had been complaining about for years. Most prevalent was the complaint that the Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center had become a "time island". The workers' union of the base subsequently petitioned the Martin County Commissioners to repetition for a change back to Eastern Time. The resulting chain reaction resulted in all of the former Eastern Time counties, along with two Central Time counties, Gibson and Spencer, petitioning for a change to Eastern Time.

On September 20, 2007, after only 15 months and only one winter on Central Time, the DOT returned only five of the eight applicants to the Eastern Time Zone. Gibson, Perry, and Spencer counties did not have enough support to be placed there. However, three of the five counties, Daviess, Knox, and Pike, had little support either, but "convenience of commerce" was given as the reason for their time changes, despite commute patterns into Evansville and the Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana plant in Gibson County, the region's largest employer. In Dubois County, a heated disagreement between Huntingburg and Jasper occurred over the topic. Most of Huntingburg's industry and economy is geared towards the Central Time Zone, where Owensboro, Kentucky, and Spencer County, and the Huntingburg area's largest employers, AK Steel and Holiday World, are located. Jasper, though, stated that the majority of its business activity is aimed at the Eastern Seaboard and that returning to the Eastern Time Zone would be in the best interest of the county.[4] The final result was that Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin, and Pike counties returned to the Eastern Time Zone on November 4, 2007, once again dividing Southwestern Indiana.[5][6]

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