Terre Haute

Terre Haute, city, seat (1818) of Vigo county, western Indiana, U.S. It lies on a 10-mile (16-km) square plateau above the Wabash River (whence its French name meaning “high ground”), 71 miles (114 km) west-southwest of Indianapolis. The site was once a place of rendezvous for Indian tribes, and nearby Fort Harrison, built in 1811, was frequently attacked by Tecumseh’s Shawnee. Laid out in 1816, it became an important community on the Cumberland (National) Road (1835), the Wabash and Erie Canal (1849), and the Terre Haute and Richmond Railroad (1852). Development of local bituminous coal deposits in the 1860s plus several oil wells stimulated industrial growth. Miners organized early, and the city is remembered in labour history for militant union activity. The 1890 home of Eugene V. Debs, who organized the country’s first industrial union (American Railway Union) in Terre Haute in 1893, still stands as a memorial and labour museum. The city subsequently acquired highly diversified industries including the manufacture of pharmaceuticals, packaging products, trailers, and audiocassettes and compact discs. A federal penitentiary was built south of the city in the 1940s. Terre Haute is the seat of Indiana State University (1865) and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (1874). St. Mary-of-the-Woods College (1840) is about 5 miles (8 km) north. Author Theodore Dreiser (An American Tragedy) and his brother, the composer Paul Dresser (“On the Banks of the Wabash”), were born in Terre Haute; the latter’s birthplace is preserved as a state shrine and memorial, and a pair of bridges over the Wabash are named for the brothers. The Sheldon Swope Art Museum exhibits American works dating from the 19th century. Shakamak State Park and Minnehaha State Fish and Wildlife Area are about 25 miles (40 km) south, and Turkey Run State Park is about 35 miles (55 km) north. Inc. town, 1832; city, 1853. Pop. (2000) 59,614; Terre Haute Metro Area, 170,943; (2010) 60,785; Terre Haute Metro Area, 172,425.