Evansville

Sister cities

• Osnabrück

History

There has been a continuous human presence in the area that became Evansville from at least 8000 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 1600, just before the arrival of Europeans to North America. Following the abandonment of Angel Mounds between 1400 and 1450, tribes of the historic Miami, Shawnee, Piankeshaw, Wyandot, Delaware and other 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 as a base of operations for fur trading. The land encompassing Evansville was formally relinquished by the Delaware in 1805 to 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 a meander in the Ohio River, and is often referred to as the "Crescent Valley" or "River City". On March 27, 1812, Hugh McGary Jr. purchased about and named it "McGary's Landing". In 1814, to attract more people, McGary renamed his village "Evansville" in honor of 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. 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 and the factories that developed along it, making the creek an industrial corridor. The land comprising the former town…

Geography

The Evansville metropolitan area, the 142nd largest in the United States, includes three Indiana counties (Posey, Vanderburgh, and Warrick) and two Kentucky counties (Henderson, and Webster). The metropolitan area does not include Owensboro, Kentucky, which is an adjacent metropolitan area about southeast of Evansville. This area is sometimes referred to as "Kentuckiana", although it is usually referred to as the “tri-state" by the local media. According to the 2010 census, Evansville has an area of , of which (or 98.94%) is land and (or 1.06%) is water. The city's southern boundary lies on an oxbow in the Ohio River. Most of the city lies in a shallow valley surrounded by low rolling hills. The city's west side is built on these rolling hills and is home to Burdette Park, Mesker Amphitheatre, and Mesker Park Zoo. The eastern portion developed in the valley and is protected by a series of levees that closely follow the path of I-69. Notable landmarks on the east side are the Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve and the Angel Mounds State Historic Site, just southeast of Evansville, between Evansville and Newburgh. For more details on this topic, see List of tallest buildings in Evansville Evansville's original downtown plat was made on about , with streets running parallel to the river from northwest to southeast. Other streets nearby were later laid out on the cardinal points, due north–south, and east–west. Thus, anyone entering or leaving downtown finds the street makes a confusing oblique-angle turn in one direction or another. In the 1970s, the city suffered from problems such as decreased economic activity and suburban flight, but city-sponsored revitalization has improved downtown conditions. The business district and riverfront feature land-based casino…

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  15,833
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  10,820
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  10,717
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  10,642
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  10,475
• Red-bellied Woodpecker

  Melanerpes carolinus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  10,214
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  9,618
• Blue Jay

  Cyanocitta cristata (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  8,594

Largest nearby schools

• North High School
  High · Evansville · 1,674 students · 16.9:1 ratio
• Francis Joseph Reitz High School
  High · Evansville · 1,280 students · 15.2:1 ratio
• William Henry Harrison High School
  High · Evansville · 1,158 students · 19:1 ratio
• Central High School
  High · Evansville · 1,090 students · 16.3:1 ratio
• McCutchanville Elementary School
  Elementary · Evansville · 938 students · 20.4:1 ratio
• North Junior High School
  Middle · Evansville · 929 students · 17.5:1 ratio
• Highland Elementary School
  Elementary · Evansville · 839 students · 17.5:1 ratio
• Benjamin Bosse High School
  Other · Evansville · 833 students · 13.7:1 ratio