The most extensive study of the history of time zones in Indiana was published in The American Atlas (1997) by Thomas G. Shanks, where the author identifies 345 areas of the state with a different time zone history for each. In 1949, in a heated rural environment vs. Debate in the city, the Indiana General Assembly passed a law to put all of Indiana on central standard time and ban daylight saving time.
However, the law had no enforcement power, and communities that wanted to observe Eastern Standard Time largely ignored it. The Indiana General Assembly passed legislation to make central time the state's official time zone in 1957, but allowed any community to switch to daylight saving time during the summer. However, the law made it illegal for communities to observe fasting (that is,. Handley pledged to enforce the law by withdrawing state aid to communities that tried to observe the winter fast, although legal obstacles forced the governor to reverse his stance.
Once again, the law was not applicable and individual communities continued to observe the time zone of their choice. In 1961, the Indiana legislature repealed the 1957 law that made central time official Indiana time, allowing any community to observe daylight saving time. The Interstate Trade Commission divided Indiana between the central time zone and the eastern time zone. Even so, neither the time zone line nor daylight saving time were observed uniformly (see 50 FR 4374).
The United States Congress subsequently passed the Uniform Time Act of 1966 (Pub, L. Before the passage of this law, each state was authorized to decide this matter for itself. However, dividing the state into two time zones was inconvenient, which is why Governor Roger D. Branigin asked the USDOT to return all of Indiana to the central time zone a year later.
Over the next two years, the USDOT held several hearings in response to Governor Branigan's request. Citizens in northwestern and southwestern Indiana seemed to prefer the central time zone with the observance of daylight saving time, while those in other areas of the state favored the eastern time zone without observing daylight saving time. The USDOT decided 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 located in the central time zone while respecting daylight saving time.
The rest of the state was placed in the Eastern Time Zone; the state received a special waiver to exempt parts of itself from daylight saving time. Most parts of the state that were in the Eastern Time Zone did not observe daylight saving time. However, Floyd, Clark and Harrison Counties, which are close to Louisville, Kentucky, and Ohio and Dearborn Counties, which are close to Cincinnati, Ohio, unofficially observed daylight saving time because of their proximity to major cities that observed daylight saving time. While the USDOT was considering where the time zone line should be, several broadcasting companies filed a federal lawsuit in 1968 to force the USDOT to enforce daylight saving time in Indiana, which they won.
As a result, the USDOT was ordered to stop informing Indiana residents that the Uniform Schedule Act would not apply and to provide a plan for its implementation (see Time Life Broadcast Company, Inc. Indiana 196. In 1972, the Indiana General Assembly overturned a veto by Governor Whitcomb to place the northwest and southwest corners of Indiana in the central time zone during daylight saving time and placing the rest of the state at Eastern Standard Time, subject to federal approval (see IC 1-1-8,. Indiana enacted the statute, officially placing northwest and southwest Indiana in the central time zone, in observance of daylight saving time, and the rest of the state in Eastern Standard Time throughout the year. Several counties in eastern Indiana (Ohio and Dearborn Counties, near Cincinnati; and Floyd, Clark and Harrison Counties, near Louisville) chose to unofficially observe daylight saving time, despite Indiana law.
Attitudes began to change in the 1990s, when Indiana's intricate time zone situation was considered to be impeding the state's economic growth. Interstate travel and commerce were difficult, as people wondered what time it is in Indiana. In 1991, Starke County requested the USDOT to move it from the central time zone to the eastern time zone for the third time. This time, the request was granted, with effect from October 27, 1991 (see 56 FR 13609 and 56 FR 5199).
Pulaski County returned to Eastern Time on March 11, when daylight saving time resumed. When standard time resumed on November 3, the five southwestern counties (Daviess, Dubois, Knox, Martin and Pike) returned to the Eastern Time Zone. A request from Perry County to move to the Eastern time zone was denied. The Decades-Old Indiana Time Zone Debate Remains Controversial.
Some argue that the entire state should switch to central time, while others would prefer that the state not observe daylight saving time again. Those who oppose putting the entire state in one time zone often cite out-of-state cities as their reason for opposition. For example, the counties of northwestern Indiana are part of the Chicago metropolitan area. Many residents travel to Chicago, which is Central Time.
The counties in the southeastern corner of the state are suburbs of cities such as Cincinnati, Ohio and Louisville, Kentucky, which observe Eastern Time. In the southwestern corner of the state, Evansville is the center of a three-state area that includes southern Illinois and western Kentucky (both in central time). Supporters of daylight saving time and a common time zone in Indiana often assert that Indiana must adopt the Eastern United States timing system to preserve interstate business with that region. Some believe that Indiana companies have wasted hours of productive time with colleagues from other states because the peculiarities of the weather are too confusing to keep track of on a daily basis.
The confusion caused to outsiders was prominent in the plot of an episode of The West Wing, in which presidential aides who were not familiar with Indiana's non-compliance with daylight saving time miss their flight back to Washington, DC, C. Indiana is covered by the following zones in the tz database:. The columns marked with * contain the data for the zone, tab. The official dividing line has generally shifted progressively west from its original location on the Indiana—Ohio border, to a position that divides Indiana in half and, finally, to its current location along much of the Indiana—Illinois border.
Daylight saving time detractors say that scientific studies evaluating the impact of the shift in hourly policy to daylight saving time in Indiana have identified a significant increase in energy use and electricity spending by Indiana households. In fact, it looks more like three time zones, because both the northern and southern parts of the state are in central time, with a large section cut off in the center that is in Eastern Time. Most of the state is in Eastern Time, staying in the same time zone as many other large cities in the Midwest, such as Columbus, Louisville and Detroit. You may have already looked at a map and noticed that there are parts of Indiana in both Central Time and Eastern Time.
Although relatively close, Indianapolis is an hour ahead of Evansville and the rest of the southwestern part of the state, where the Wabash meets the Ohio River. Most of the state is in Eastern Time (80 of the 92 counties), but some of the most populated parts of the state are in Central Time. The location of Martin County in the central time zone, leaving the adjoining Counties of Greene and Lawrence in the eastern time zone, presented a particular problem for the Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane, a large United States Navy base that spans both sides of the three counties. Because much of Indiana is on the western border of the Eastern Time Zone, many in the state were opposed to observing daylight saving time there for decades.
But in 1985, the Indiana General Assembly, in Senate Concurrent Resolution 6 of 1985, called on the USDOT to move five southwestern Indiana counties (Posey, Vanderburgh, Warrick, Spencer and Gibson) from the central time zone to the eastern time zone. . .