Marion County (Indianapolis, Indiana)

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Marion County, IN (49)
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Marion County, Indiana was created by an act of legislation on December 31, 1821 and began its existence on April 22, 1822. Indianapolis is the county seat as well as the state capitol. Indianapolis occupies approximately 85% of Marion County. The county is divided into nine townships; Pike, Washington, Lawrence, Wayne, Center, Warren, Decatur, Perry, and Franklin.

Marion County was named for General Francis Marion. He was an American Revoluntionary War hero, nicknamed "Swamp Fox" by British for disrupting their plans with his outstanding guerilla warfare tactics from his base in swamps.

As of 2000, the population was 860,454. The estimated population in 2006 was 865,504. The county seat is Indianapolis. Marion County's alphanumeric county number is 49. However, the numbers 93, 95, 97, 98, and 99 also represent Marion County mainly in the areas inside Indianapolis, while 49 tends to represent the other excluded cities of Speedway, Lawrence, Beech Grove, and Southport which together represent nearly 120,000 people.

Marion County has a consolidated city-county government, in which only four municipalities retain a measure of government autonomy (including a mayor and city council) as "excluded cities" (in addition to Indianapolis, which has its own administration in addition to city-county consolidated government). The remaining municipalities within the county are "included towns" and exercise no authority beyond that of a large neighborhood association. Since many of these included towns were and remain fairly wealthy and influential within the county, this can amount to considerable unofficial clout. Likewise, some neighborhoods that had already been formally incorporated into Indianapolis (such as Broad Ripple) possess similar influence.

Currently Excluded Cities (AO 2008)
Beech Grove, Lawrence, Southport, and Speedway

Former Excluded Cities Now part of Indianapolis
Broad Ripple, Clermont, Crows Nest, Homecroft, Meridian Hills, North Crows Nest, Rocky Ripple, Spring Hill, Warren Park, West Newton, Williams Creek, and Wynnedale


Useless Tidbits about Marion County:

Of Marion County's nine townships, eight of them share their names with an Indiana County.
Decatur (16), Franklin (24), Lawrence (47), Perry (62), Pike (63), Warren (86), Washington (88), and Wayne (89), and more than a third of Indiana's Counties have a Center Township.

Washington Township is a named township in 48 or 52% of Indiana Counties.

With Indiana's new plates not using the county number system, Marion County no longer uses 93, 95, 97, 98, or 99 anymore.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marion_County,_Indiana
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   39°46'47"N   86°7'59"W

Comments

  • Pretty much the easiest county to trace out.
  • Number 30 in my list of counties to be traced out. Anybody living in these counties that wishes to put in information about them is more than welcome to. I only know more about Southwestern Indiana than the rest of the state, so I am only limited to what information I do know about them.
This article was last modified 13 years ago