The U.S. state of Indiana is divided into Eastern and Central time zones.
History From the beginning of standardized time zones in 1918 until 1961, all of Indiana was in the Central Time Zone, with the boundary running along the Indiana–Ohio border. The Interstate Commerce Commission shifted the line to run roughly halfway through the state in 1961, although many counties in the western part of the state unofficially began to use Eastern Time to be on the same time as Indianapolis. In 1966, Eastern Time was extended to all of Indiana except for the northwestern counties, which were suburbs of Chicago, and the southwestern counties surrounding Evansville, which historically had stronger railroad ties to Nashville, Memphis, and St. Louis than to Indianapolis. These changes were said to have primarily occurred to ease communications between Indiana and New York City.
As much of Indiana is on the western frontier of the Eastern Time Zone, many in the state opposed observing daylight saving time (DST) there for decades. In 1972, a plan was implemented where DST was observed in the Central Time counties but not the Eastern Time counties. Due to a 2005 law passed by the Indiana General Assembly, DST was observed statewide beginning in April 2006, with five southwestern and northwestern counties reverting to Central Time.
Time zones
Indiana observes Eastern Time in 80 of its 92 counties. The remaining 12 counties observe Central Time.http://www.in.gov/portal/files/TimeZones.pdf Retrieved 2011-01-01 Six of these counties are in northwestern Indiana, near Chicago (which observes Central Time), and six are in southwestern Indiana, near Evansville, whose metro area includes portions of southeastern Illinois and western Kentucky, which also observe Central Time. The twelve counties are:
Northwestern Indiana (Chicagoland): Jasper Lake LaPorte Newton Porter Starke Southwestern Indiana (Evansville Metro Area): Gibson Perry Posey Spencer Vanderburgh Warrick
Since April 2, 2006, all counties in Indiana observe daylight saving time.
tz database
The tz database lists 11 time zones for Indiana, where each zone is defined as a geographic area that observed the same offsets from UTC since January 1, 1970 (the UNIX epoch). The diagrams in this article are colored to show these 11 zones and a key is provided below. Indiana is covered by the following zones in the tz database. Columns marked with * contain the data from zone.tab. c.c.* coordinates* TZ* comments* UTC offset DST Location and counties within Indiana Notes East of the 1961 divide: (all unlisted counties) West of the 1961 divide: N: Saint Joseph, Marshall, Fulton, Cass, Miami, Howard, Tipton NW: Benton, Warren, White, Tippecanoe, Carroll, Clinton W: Montgomery, Fountain, Parke, Vigo, Clay, Sullivan, Greene, Owen, Vermillion, Putnam S: Monroe, Brown, Bartholomew, Lawrence, Jackson, Orange, Washington North West: Pulaski South West: Pike South West: Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin South West: Crawford South East: Clark, Floyd, Harrison only part of the zone is in Indiana South East: Switzerland South East: Dearborn, Ohio only part of the zone is in Indiana North West, near Chicago: Jasper, Lake, LaPorte, Newton, PorterSouth West, near Evansville: Gibson, Posey, Spencer, Vanderburgh, and Warrick only part of the zone is in Indiana North West: Starke South West: Perry
History The most extensive study of time zone history in Indiana was published in The American Atlas (1978) by Thomas G. Shanks, in which the author identified 345 areas in the state with a different time zone history for each.
Pre-1918 Before 1883 in the United States, most towns and cities set their own local time to noon when the sun was at its highest point in the sky. Since the sun reaches "high noon" four minutes later for every degree of longitude traveled towards the west, the time in every town was different. In Indiana, local mean time varied from GMT-5:39 in the east to GMT-5:52 in the west. With the emergence of the railroads, hundreds of miles could be traveled in a much shorter time, causing a train passenger to apparently experience several slight changes in time over the course of even a short rail trip. By 1883, the major railroads in the US agreed to coordinate their clocks and begin operating on "standard time" with four "time zones" established across the (then 38-state) nation, centered on the 75th, 90th, 105th, and 120th meridians west. On November 18, 1883, telegraph lines transmitted GMT to major cities, where each city was to adjust their official time to their proper zone. The state capital in Indianapolis lies at approximately the 86th meridian (U.S. Census Bureau), closer to the center of the Central Time Zone at the 90th meridian than the center of the Eastern Time Zone at the 75th meridian. Mean solar time in Indiana is approximately GMT-5:45.
1918 to 1948
Time zones were first adopted by the United States Congress with the Standard Time Act of 1918. All of Indiana was located in the Central Time Zone. It was at this time the dividing line between Eastern Time and Central Time was moved from the Pennsylvania-Ohio and West Virginia-Ohio state lines. The Ohio-Indiana state line became the time zone line in 1927 (north of US Route 40) and 1935 (from US Route 40 to the Ohio River). Daylight saving time (DST) was included in the original Standard Time Act. A year later, Congress repealed daylight saving time from the Standard Time Act of 1918, though some communities continued to follow it. During World War II, daylight saving time was once again mandated by Congress to conserve energy. After the war, the mandate to observe daylight saving time was lifted again.
1949 to 1959 In 1949, in a heated rural vs. city debate, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law to put all of Indiana on Central Standard Time and to outlaw daylight saving time. However, the law had no enforcement power, and it was largely ignored by communities that wanted to observe Eastern Standard Time. The General Assembly passed a law to make Central Time the official time zone of the state in 1957, but permitted any community to switch to daylight saving time during the summer. The law did, however, make it illegal for communities to observe "fast time" (i.e., daylight saving time) during the winter months. Governor Harold W. Handley vowed to enforce the law by withdrawing state aid from communities that attempted to observe "fast time" during the winter, though legal obstacles forced the governor to back down from his stance. Once again, the law was not enforceable, and individual communities continued to observe whichever time zone they preferred.
1960 to 1977
In 1961, the legislature repealed the 1957 law making Central Time the official time of Indiana, which allowed any community to observe DST. The Interstate Commerce Commission divided Indiana between the Central Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone. This made more of the Michigan-Indiana (first changed in 1931) and Kentucky-Indiana (first changed in 1935 and additionally in 1957) state lines the time zone boundaries. Neither the time zone line nor daylight saving time were uniformly observed. The United States Congress later passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 April 13, 1966; ; to specify where and when daylight saving time was applied in the U.S., and authority was shifted to the United States Department of Transportation (USDOT). Prior to the passing of this law, each state was permitted to decide this issue for itself. Having the state split in two time zones was inconvenient, however, so Governor Roger D. Branigin petitioned the USDOT to place all of Indiana back in the Central Time Zone a year later.
Over the next two years, the USDOT conducted several hearings in response to Branigin's petition. Citizens of northwest and southwest Indiana appeared to favor the Central Time Zone with observance of DST, while those from other areas of the state favored the Eastern Time Zone with no observance of DST. The USDOT chose to divide Indiana between the Central Time Zone and the Eastern Time Zone. Six counties near Chicago (Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Jasper, Newton, and Starke) and six counties near Evansville (Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, Gibson, and Pike) were placed in the Central Time Zone with observance of DST. The remainder of the state was placed in the Eastern Time Zone; the state was given special dispensation to exempt parts of itself from DST. Most portions of the state that were in the Eastern Time Zone did not observe DST. However, Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties, which are near Louisville, Kentucky, and Dearborn and Ohio counties, which are near Cincinnati, Ohio, unofficially observed DST due to their proximity to those major cities that observed DST.
While the USDOT was considering where the time zone line should be, several broadcast companies filed a federal lawsuit in 1968 to compel the USDOT to enforce the observance of daylight saving time in Indiana, which they won. As a result, the USDOT was ordered to stop informing Indiana residents that the Uniform Time Act would not be enforced and to provide a plan for its enforcement in Time Life Broadcast Company, Inc. v. Boyd, Time Life being the owner of WFBM-TV (Channel 6) in Indianapolis.
In 1972, the Indiana General Assembly overrode a veto from Governor Edgar Whitcomb to place the northwest and southwest corners of Indiana in the Central Time Zone on daylight saving time, and to place the rest of the state on Eastern Standard Time, upon federal approval. Congress approved an amendment; to the Uniform Time Act of 1966 to permit a state that lay in two time zones to exempt part of the state from daylight saving time, and President Richard Nixon signed it into law. The final changes to the Michigan-Indiana time zone boundary occurred in 1973, when Michigan (also affected by the 1972 amendments to the Uniform time act) adopted its current daylight saving and time zone boundary laws. Several eastern Indiana counties (Ohio and Dearborn counties, near Cincinnati; and Floyd, Clark, and Harrison counties, near Louisville) chose to unofficially observe daylight saving time, despite the Indiana statute.
County petitions (1977 to 1991)
Starting in 1977, several counties and the state began petitioning USDOT to switch time zones and Daylight Savings Time observance.
Pike County asked the USDOT to move it from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone in 1977; the request was approved. Four years later, Starke County asked the USDOT to move it from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone; in this case, however the USDOT did not find a sound reason for the move, and declined the request (see and ). In 1985, the Indiana General Assembly, in Senate Concurrent Resolution 6, asked the USDOT to move five counties in southwest Indiana (Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer, and Gibson) from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone. The USDOT denied the request, finding that the change would not serve the convenience of commerce (see , , and ). By 1986–87, Jasper County, along with Starke County, which was making a time zone change request for the second time in four years, petitioned the USDOT to move them from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone in 1987–1989. Those petitions of the counties were denied (see and ).
Attitudes began to change in the 1990s, as Indiana's time zone situation was seen as impeding the state's economic growth. Interstate travel and commerce were difficult as people wondered, "what time is it in Indiana?" In 1991, Starke County petitioned the USDOT to move it from the Central Time Zone to the Eastern Time Zone for the third time. This time, the petition was granted, effective October 27, 1991 (see and ).
Switch to statewide DST