Daniel Boone, the first settler through the Cumberland Gap, is credited to rediscovering the Midwest. He lived in Indiana for a while when he was exploring. The north border of Indiana borders Michigan and a little bit of Illinois while the southern border borders Kentucky along the Ohio river. The northwestern side of Indiana is near Chicago and on Lake Michigan. On the western side of Indiana it borders Illinois along the Wabash river. Ohio is along the eastern border of Indiana. The geography of Indiana is rolling hills in the north and south, but oddly enough, a glacier went through the middle, making it flat fertile farmland. The good farmland made many early settlers want to travel here and they used the Wabash and Ohio rivers to transport their crops. There used to be Native Americans here but they were forced to Oklahoma, which was an Indian reservation. The White river runs through the middle of Indiana. Much of Indiana was forest and it was said that a squirrel could run from Ohio to Illinois without touching the ground. [To the top right, is a map of Indiana and the surrounding states and rivers/lakes. On the bottom right is a close-up of Indianapolis, the state's capital.]
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