Indiana has some vast differences in feeling between northern, central, and
southern.  In the south you have hills and rivers, and culturally it feels
like it should belong to the Southern region (i.e. with Kentucky and
Tennessee).  Central Indiana is definitely Corn Belt Midwestern, and
Northern Indiana (i.e. South Bend and Gary) feels very industrial and
Michigan-ish.

The idea of defining regions by topographical features is a good one, but I
think cultural boundaries are more apt sometimes.  For instance, Iowa has a
lot more in common with Central Indiana than Southern Indiana--since
Southern Indiana was settled by immigration from Kentucky while Central
Indiana received its population from Ohio.  If you want to make
generalizations across regions, maybe we should consider more where people
came from rather than where they ended up.  (I lived in California for a
while and found a great deal of Los Angeles made up of people originally
from New York City--if it weren't for the dissimilar weather patterns the
cultures might be a lot closer than they are now.)

Julia Moore
Indianapolis Art Center
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