Indiana's northern border is shared by Michigan. The city of South Bend, Indiana, is on this border. Before Indiana was admitted to the United States, the area was part of the Northwest Territory. At that point, Michigan and Indiana were part of the Indiana Territory, before Michigan was sectioned off through the War of 1812. After the Toledo War, in which Michigan and Ohio disputed their borders, the Michigan territory applied for and was made the 26th state in 1837.
The east border of Indiana is shared with Ohio along the 88 degree, 4' W longitude line. Before 1800, Indiana and Ohio were both part of the Northwest Territory. Congress separated Ohio from the Northwest Territory in 1800, creating a state, and the rest of the area became the Indiana Territory. Today, the long north-to-south border is a rural region of low hills and valleys, dominated by agricultural production of soybeans, corn, chickens and eggs and winter wheat.
The southern border of Indiana follows the Ohio River, running southwest from the Indiana-Ohio border just north of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, to where the Ohio River and Wabash River meet at the convergence of Kentucky, Indiana and Illinois. Major cities on both sides of the winding river border include Louisville, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana. The land is made up of a series of steep hills and valleys, with a network of caverns carved by underground streams.
To the east of Indiana lies Illinois. The border between the states begins at Lake Michigan in the north and moves south in a straight line until it reaches the Wabash river, approximately 150 miles from the nothernmost tip of Indiana, near Terre Haute, Indiana. At that point, the border winds southwest until it reaches the Ohio River and the border with Kentucky. After separation from Indiana and the Northwest Territory, Illinois was granted statehood in 1818.