Historic Southern Indiana

Elevation

The lowest point in the state is the southwestern tip of Posey County—99 meters above sea level. (The highest, 383 meters, is north of Richmond.)

Evansville is 120 meters, Vincennes 132, and Madison 152.

Oil and Coal

Virtually all of Indiana’s oil-producing wells and surface and underground coal mines are in southwestern Indiana.

Average Annual Temperature

The state average is 52 degrees Fahrenheit. The immediate Evansville area is warmer—56 degrees. The northern tier of counties in the Historic Southern Indiana region is 53 degrees.

Average Annual Precipitation

The statewide average per year is 40 inches. Southern Indiana exceeds that by 3 inches in the northern tier of counties and by 6 in the south central region—Perry, Crawford, Orange, and parts of Spencer, Dubois, Pike, and Jackson counties.

Wetlands

Six southern Indiana counties—Jackson and the rest in southwestern Indiana—are among only ten in the state with at least 9 percent of its land occupied by wetlands. (The rest are in northeast Indiana.) This data was gathered in 1985.

Outdoor Recreation

Most of the land set aside for nature preserves, recreational areas, state parks, state forests, fish and wildlife areas, national forest, and non-publicly owned lakes and reservoirs is in the Historic Southern Indiana region. The Hoosier National Forest has the largest amount of land, spanning parts of eleven counties in the central part of the region.

Source: Jeffrey Wilson, Indiana in Maps: Geographic Perspectives of the Hoosier State (2003)

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The lowest point in Indiana is 320 feet above sea level—at the mouth of the Wabash River in Posey County.

Normal monthly weather statistics, 1961 – 1990:

Region	Mean	Temp	Min	Temp	Max	Temp	Month Precip	Month Precip	Annual Precip
	Jan	July	Jan	July	Jan	July	Jan	July
Southwest	29.2	77.0	20.2	66.0	38.2	88.0	2.68	4.55	45.05
South Central	28.7	75.5	19.1	64.3	38.3	86.8	2.82	4.67	45.41
Southeast	29.3	75.8	19.8	64.4	38.7	87.2	2.76	4.44	43.85
State	25.2	74.4	16.4	63.2	34.0	85.6	2.21	4.22	40.54

Physiographic Features

Southern Indiana is the state’s most diversified area, having seven distinctive physiographic provinces. With some exceptions on the eastern portion of its northern boundary, it is separated from central Indiana by the Wisconsin glacial boundary—the more recent of the two that affected Indiana. The older glacier, the Illinoian, reached farther south, but about half of southern Indiana was unaffected by it.

Going west to east, the provinces are:

Wabash Lowland (a broad lowland about 500 feet above sea level; 40-50 percent of land in crops; most of state’s gas, oil, coal here; climate and environment in Ohio, Wabash bottomlands resembles Gulf Coast—bald cypress, bamboo, mistletoe)

Crawford Upland (a deeply dissected upland with the state’s largest caves; steep stream valleys; Hoosier National Forest occupies most of it; a continuous belt of rugged hills from Perry County northward)

Mitchell Plain (an area of low relief, sinkholes; karst topography, rich in limestone and gypsum; “lost river” here; small to medium-sized farms, mostly beef cattle and hay)

Norman Upland (on eastern border, separating provinces 3 and 5, Knobstone Escarpment, the state’s most prominent landform, crests 400-600 feet above New Albany; little urban development)

Scottsburg Lowland (wide alluvial plains, with northern area covered by up to 150 feet of glacial drift; at the southern end, Falls of the Ohio State Park at Clarksville contains fossilized remains of Devonian coral reef; only natural obstacle on the Ohio River; 50 percent of land in crops)

Muscatatuck Regional Slope (gently sloping plain; northern portion covered by up to 150 feet of glacial drift; minor karst topography with sinkholes and caves along valley borders; 50 percent of land in crops)

Dearborn Upland (a plateau dissected by streams with valley bottoms as much as 450 feet lower; 45 percent of land in pasture for beef cattle; some of the state’s highest elevations here)

Sections 2, 3, 4, and part of 1 are unglaciated, part of the Driftless Area.

Southern Indiana Natural Resources

Hoosier National Forest (Monroe County southward through Perry County)

Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge (Jackson and Jennings counties)

Indiana State Parks those with inns are asterisked):
Charlestown
Clifty Falls, Madison *
Falls of the Ohio, Clarksville
Harmonie, New Harmony
Lincoln, Lincoln City
Spring Mill, Mitchell *
Versailles

State Reservoirs
Hardy Lake, Scottsburg
Patoka Lake, Birdseye

Fish and Wildlife Areas
Brush Creek, North Vernon
Crosley, North Vernon
Glendale, Montgomery
Hovey Lake, Mount Vernon
Sugar Ridge, Winslow
Splinter Ridge (Jefferson and Switzerland counties)

State Forests
Deam Lake SRA, Borden
Ferdinand
Starve Hollow, Vallonia
Harrison Crawford/Wyandotte Complex, Corydon
Clark, Henryville
Wyandotte Caves SRA, Leavenworth
Jackson-Washington, Brownstown
Martin, Shoals
Pike, Winslow
Selmier, North Vernon

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