CHANGING SIGNIFICANCE OF ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS AT BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA

Abstract

C OMPARATIVELY little on the changes with time in the significance of local geographic factors has been reported in geographic literature. One consequence has been a wide difference of opinion among geographers and others as to the significance of geographic factors. Indiana, affords an instructive case-study of such changes and the need for repeated re-evaluation as man's technology evolves and as other areas develop. This city is selected because for 37 years it has been the subject of study by me (commencing four years after receiving the Ph. D. at Chicago). Little that is directly geographic has been published on it, except on its climate and limestone industry.' Here are discussed the changing significance of Bloomington's location in the state, of its rolling topography, of its site on a drainage divide in a depression between more rugged land, of its being underlain by an exceptional limestone, and of its situation in a wooded, unglaciated area. Considered also are its accessibility, the quality of the soil, the feasibility of dams to create reservoirs, and its attractiveness as a residence city. Bloomington was established where it is largely because of the selection of the site for the Seminary township. In the enabling act that created Indiana the federal government provided for a donation of a township of public land in support of an institution of higher learning.2 seminary established in that township in 1824 has grown into Indiana University. committee appointed to select the township made its recommendation in time for President Monroe to designate it on July 10, 1816.3 county created two years later surrounding it was named after President Monroe. township later was named after Commodore Perry. selected township was near the northern margin of the part of Indiana which had been surveyed in 1812 into sections and townships. Nearly all central and northern Indiana remained Indian territory until 1818 when The New Purchase was made of much of that region. selected township was nearly midway between the northern parts of the lower Wabash Valley at the southwest and the Whitewater Valley at the southeast. In July 1816 most of the people of Indiana lived in or near those valleys, south from near Terre Haute and Richmond, respec1 S. S. Visher, The Indiana Oolitic Limestone Industry, Economic Geography, Vol. 7 (1931), pp. 50-58, and of Bloomington, Chapter 26 of Climate of Indiana (Bloomington: Indiana 1944). 2 David D. Banta, History of Indiana University, in Centennial Memorial Volume (Indiana 1921), pp. 11, 12. Judge Banta was dean of the Indiana University Law School, 1889-96. 3Ibid., p. 12.