Area history
For a metro of its size, Evansville and Newburgh have an outsized history. A thousand-year-old Mississippian city. The first Indiana town raided by Confederate troops. A river-borne industrial age. And during World War II, one of the most extraordinary manufacturing chapters in American history. Here’s the thread, start to present.
Founding the towns
Both cities owe their existence to the same thing: a long, navigable bend of the Ohio River. Long before either town was drawn on a map, the Mississippian peoples built one of the largest pre-contact cities in the eastern United States here. From roughly 1100 to 1450 AD, what we now call Angel Mounds was home to up to a thousand people, with thirteen earthen mounds aligned to celestial events and a palisade of more than sixteen thousand timbers.
Newburgh came first among the Anglo-American settlements. It was founded as Sprinklesburg in 1803 (later combined with neighboring Mount Prospect and renamed Newburgh in 1837), making it one of the oldest towns in the Ohio Valley. Its riverfront, perched on a bluff with a deep-water landing, turned it into a commercial port and coal-shipping town early.
Evansville was platted nine years later. On March 27, 1812, Hugh McGary Jr. purchased 441 acres and called the spot “McGary’s Landing.” In 1814 he renamed it Evansville in honor of Colonel Robert Morgan Evans — a more marketable name when trying to attract settlers. The town was incorporated in 1817 and became the Vanderburgh County seat the following January.
Before the towns
Just east of present-day Evansville, on the banks of the Ohio, sits one of the best-preserved Mississippian Native American sites in the United States. Built between roughly 1100 and 1450 AD by Middle Mississippian peoples, the town held up to a thousand inhabitants behind a stockade wall, with thirteen earthen mounds, hundreds of home sites, communal plazas, and intricate astronomy: the mounds align with extraordinary precision to the sunrise on the summer solstice and the sunset on the winter solstice.
The site was abandoned a few generations before European contact, for reasons that remain debated. Today the Angel Mounds State Historic Site preserves the original earthworks alongside an interpretive center, recreations of Mississippian structures, and a replica of the 1939 WPA archaeology laboratory where much of the modern study began. It’s one of the most significant archaeological sites between St. Louis and Cincinnati, and an easy half-day visit.
July 18, 1862
During the Civil War, Newburgh has an unlikely distinction: it was the first town in a Union state to be captured by Confederate forces. The raid happened on July 18, 1862, and it was pulled off by a Confederate colonel named Adam Rankin Johnson and a force of only about thirty-five men.
Johnson’s genius was theatrical. Across the river on the Kentucky bluffs, he positioned two “Quaker guns” — fake cannons made from charred logs, stovepipes, and the axles of a broken wagon. From Newburgh, they looked very real and very aimed. With his “artillery” in place, Johnson crossed the river, seized a small warehouse of weapons, and bluffed roughly eighty Union convalescent soldiers in a nearby hotel into surrendering their (unloaded) muskets. He paroled the prisoners, looted a few homes and stores, and recrossed the river within hours — without firing a shot.
For the rest of his life, Adam Johnson was known as “Stovepipe.” The Newburgh Museum keeps a permanent exhibit on the raid, and a state historical marker stands on Newburgh’s Main Street where most of it played out.
Late 1800s — early 1900s
By the late 19th century, Evansville had become one of the industrial powerhouses of the Midwest. River commerce delivered raw materials; the city sent finished goods back out by both river and rail. For decades, Evansville was known nationally for three things: furniture, brewing, and refrigeration.
Furniture: dozens of factories, most clustered along the river, produced everything from parlor sets to mass-market dining tables. Brewing: F.W. Cook Brewing and Sterling Brewery were regional giants. Refrigeration: Servel built the gas-powered refrigerators that quietly cooled American homes for decades, shipping units out of Evansville to the rest of the country. Hercules Buggy and the Igleheart Brothers (milling) added to the industrial mix.
Newburgh, smaller and more residential, ran on coal. A pair of underground mines and the riverside loading facilities turned local coal into a regional export, and the town’s wealth paid for the brick storefronts and Federal-style homes that still define Main Street today.
1941–1945
If there’s one chapter of local history that surprises visitors most, it’s this one. During World War II, Evansville was named an American “World War II Heritage City” for good reason: the manufacturing output here was simply astonishing.
In 1942, the Department of the Navy commissioned the Missouri Valley Bridge & Iron Co. to build a 40-acre shipyard on Evansville’s riverfront. Its mission: produce Landing Ship Tanks — the workhorses of every amphibious assault in the Pacific and on D-Day. By February 1945, the Evansville Shipyard had launched 167 LSTs, more than any other location in the country, plus thirteen ammunition lighters and seventeen oceangoing barges. At peak, the yard was launching one ship every four days. It was the largest inland producer of oceangoing ships in the United States.
One of those ships, the USS LST-325, served at Omaha Beach on D-Day and is permanently docked on Evansville’s riverfront today. You can tour it.
Meanwhile on the other side of town, Republic Aviation opened a massive new plant in September 1942 to produce P-47 Thunderbolts — the heavy fighter that escorted bombers over Europe. Republic’s Long Island plant couldn’t keep up with demand, so Evansville took over production at scale.
Total output: 6,242 Thunderbolts, more than any other site, accounting for over one-third of every P-47 ever produced. About half the workforce was women.
International Steel built gun mounts and bombsight components. Briggs Indiana built aircraft parts. Servel converted from refrigerators to wing assemblies. Chrysler-Plymouth, Hercules, and Igleheart pitched in. Peak shipyard employment alone hit 19,213, and an estimated 70,000 people total worked at the yard at one point or another during the war. Evansville’s population essentially doubled overnight.
That this small Midwest river town quietly turned out a meaningful slice of the entire Allied war effort is one of the great underappreciated stories of WWII America. The Evansville Wartime Museum and the USS LST-325 Ship Memorial are where you go to feel its weight.
Post-war to today
After the war ended, the shipyard closed and the P-47 plant shifted to civilian work, then eventually shut down. Like many industrial towns, Evansville reinvented itself piece by piece. Whirlpool and International Harvester (later Navistar) became major employers. Mead Johnson (founded in Evansville in 1905, now part of Reckitt) built Enfamil and other nutrition products into a global business based here. Berry Global grew from a small plastics shop into a Fortune 500 company headquartered on the riverfront. Old National Bank, founded in Evansville in 1834, remains one of the largest community banks in the Midwest.
In 1986, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indiana broke ground in nearby Princeton, north of Evansville — the plant that today produces the Sienna, Sequoia, Highlander, and Grand Highlander. It’s the largest Toyota plant in North America by output, and a major reason Evansville’s economy continues to lean on manufacturing.
The downtown riverfront has seen a steady renaissance over the last two decades — new restaurants, the Ford Center arena (2011), the Aiken Theatre and Old National Events Plaza, riverfront walking trails, and the LST-325’s permanent home dock in 2020. Newburgh, meanwhile, has held its small-town character while becoming a destination for weekend shopping, dining, and outdoor recreation on the Warrick Trails network.
Where to see the history
The places to walk through the story above. Plan a half-day for the LST-325 plus the Wartime Museum, and a separate half-day for Reitz Home + the Evansville Museum (they’re across the street from each other on Riverside Drive).
WW2 history
Tells Evansville's astonishing WW2 manufacturing story — the LST shipyard, P-47 Thunderbolt plant, and the local workforce of more than 70,000 people who powered it. Includes the Hoosier Spirit II, a fully restored P-47 Thunderbolt.
WW2 / floating museum
An actual WWII Landing Ship Tank that served on D-Day at Omaha Beach, permanently docked on Evansville's riverfront. You can tour the ship deck-by-deck. One of the most powerful living-history experiences in the Midwest.
Victorian-era home
John Augustus Reitz's beautifully preserved 1871 French Second Empire mansion on Riverside Drive. Lumber baron's home with period furnishings, original woodwork, and a guided tour that doubles as a snapshot of Gilded Age Evansville.
Mixed-use museum
Riverfront museum with rotating art exhibits, a Rivertown USA transportation gallery, regional historical artifacts, and the Koch Immersive Theater — a state-of-the-art planetarium worth its own visit.
Pre-contact Native American
One of the best-preserved Mississippian Native American sites in the eastern US. Occupied from roughly 1100–1450 AD by up to a thousand people, with thirteen earthen mounds aligned to celestial events. Interpretive center opened 1972.
Town history
Small but excellent volunteer-run museum in historic Newburgh. The dedicated exhibit on Adam “Stovepipe” Johnson’s 1862 Confederate raid alone makes it worth a stop.
Library & museum
About 40 minutes northwest, the oldest continuously operating public library in Indiana (founded 1838) and a charming museum in the utopian town of New Harmony. Worth a day trip if you're staying longer than a weekend.
Historic ballpark
Not a museum exactly, but worth listing. Third-oldest professional ballpark in the United States, opened in 1915. Featured in A League of Their Own. Evansville Otters play here summer evenings.
Walk-around history
You don’t need to step inside a museum to see this history. A lot of the buildings that tell it are still standing — and still in use. A few to look out for as you wander:
Evansville’s Riverside Historic District runs along Riverside Drive south and east of downtown. Italianate and Queen Anne mansions built by furniture and brewing barons face directly onto the Ohio. The Reitz Home (1871, French Second Empire) is the headliner, but the whole stretch is a Victorian time capsule.
The Old Vanderburgh County Courthouse (1891, Romanesque Revival), a few blocks inland, is one of the most intricate public buildings in the state — heavy stone, ornate carvings, a copper dome. Used today for events and offices. Nearby, the Old Post Office (now repurposed as a restaurant and office complex) and the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Coliseum (1917) round out the downtown civic-architecture story.
For early-20th-century Americana, see Bosse Field (1915), one of the few pre-WWI professional ballparks still in use — and a stand-in for Wrigley and Comiskey in A League of Their Own.
Newburgh’s historic Main Street is arguably the best-preserved 19th-century downtown in southern Indiana. A 30-minute stroll covers Federal, Greek Revival, and Italianate storefronts that have been in continuous use for over 150 years. The Old Newburgh Lock & Dam structures down the river add a layer of working-class engineering history.
Combined, these districts make Evansville/Newburgh one of the most walkable architectural-history destinations in the region — with the added bonus that you’re never more than a few blocks from a great coffee or beer.
Several of our downtown Evansville properties are walking distance from the LST-325, the Reitz Home, and the Evansville Museum. If you’re building a trip around history, we’re happy to suggest the right home and the best timing.