Leavenworth

History

Leavenworth was laid out in 1818 in a horseshoe shaped bend of the Ohio River, directly under a large bluff called Mt. Eden. The bluff forms part of the Indiana Ridge and faces directly across the river toward Kentucky. "Old Leavenworth" (the original town, now practically abandoned) was almost completely wiped out by the huge 1937 Ohio River flood, as it was built directly on the floodplain. The town was founded by Zebulon Leavenworth and his brother Seth, natives of Connecticut. In 1824, a wood yard was established in the town to provide fuel to steamboats, and David Lyon had a boatbuilding industry here in 1830. The Whitcomb brickyard was also a flourishing industry. The Crisis, Crawford County's first newspaper, was begun in Leavenworth in 1839. In 1835, Zebulon started a stage line from Leavenworth to the new state capitol in Indianapolis, a route intended primarily for students going to the new State College in Bloomington (later Indiana University) and for boatmen returning from downriver. Riverboat men returning from New Orleans were thought to be carriers of the yellow fever and cholera epidemics that often devastated the Ohio Valley frontier. Seth Leavenworth advocated the construction of a marine hospital for the purpose of quarantine and medical treatment, which he hoped to build somewhere near the town of Leavenworth. The bill he put before the Indiana legislature was never enacted. In 1843, Leavenworth supplanted Fredonia as the county seat. Leavenworth remained the county seat until 1896, when the county records were stolen by a mob in a notorious armed “courthouse war" against the town of English. Seth Leavenworth eventually left Indiana and moved to Missouri, where he died in 1854. His son Zebulon, named after the boy's uncle in Indiana,…

Geography

According to the 2010 census, Leavenworth has a total area of , of which (or 94.25%) is land and (or 5.75%) is water. The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild to cool winters. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Leavenworth has a humid subtropical climate, abbreviated "Cfa" on climate maps.

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Northern Cardinal

  Cardinalis cardinalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  4,311
• Tufted Titmouse

  Baeolophus bicolor (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  3,829
• Carolina Chickadee

  Poecile carolinensis (Audubon, 1834) · Aves
  3,441
• Mourning Dove

  Zenaida macroura (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  3,176
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  2,807
• House Finch

  Haemorhous mexicanus (P.L.Statius Müller, 1776) · Aves
  2,779
• Downy Woodpecker

  Dryobates pubescens (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  2,775
• Carolina Wren

  Thryothorus ludovicianus (Latham, 1790) · Aves
  2,683

Largest nearby schools

• Crawford County High School
  High · Marengo · 381 students · 12.7:1 ratio
• South Crawford Elementary School
  Elementary · Leavenworth · 164 students · 14.9:1 ratio