StatesFacts
Menu

All 50 states

Indiana state symbols

Indiana has 16 official state symbols, a shorter list than most states. The oldest is the state song of 1913; the newest is the mastodon, adopted as the state fossil in 2022. Its symbols mix nature, such as the tulip tree and the cardinal, with history, from a frontier rifle to a World War II fighter plane.

16 official designations · every law checked October 23, 2026

Song, flag, tree and flower

Indiana’s symbols started with music. “On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away,” written by Paul Dresser in 1897, became the state song in 1913. The flag followed in 1917, after a contest for the state’s centennial. In 1931 the legislature adopted the tulip tree as the state tree and the zinnia as the state flower; in 1957 it replaced the zinnia with the peony, a garden favorite traditionally used to decorate graves on Memorial Day. The cardinal became the state bird in 1933.

Stone and river

Indiana’s most famous natural resource is its limestone. In 1971 the legislature named Salem Limestone, quarried in south-central Indiana, the official state stone. It has been used in the Empire State Building, the Pentagon and many state capitols and courthouses, and it was used to build Indiana’s own Statehouse. The Wabash River, the state river since 1996, gave the state its song.

History you can hold

Two symbols honor objects from Indiana’s past. The Grouseland Rifle, the state rifle since 2012, was made between 1803 and 1812 by Colonel John Small of Vincennes, and it is named for Grouseland, the Vincennes home of territorial governor William Henry Harrison. The law gives the Grouseland Foundation of Vincennes control over any copy: nobody may reproduce or sell one without its permission. The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, the state aircraft since 2015, honors the thousands of these heavy fighters built in Evansville from 1942 to 1945, which earned it the nickname “the Indiana Warbird.”

Ideas from students and a fossil

Indiana’s newest symbols came from young people and a curious legislator. Kayla Xu, a second grader at Cumberland Elementary in West Lafayette, noticed that Indiana had no state insect. She and classmates from Cumberland and Happy Hollow schools researched the options and chose Say’s firefly, named for Thomas Say of New Harmony, often called the father of American entomology. Their bill passed the Senate 48 to 0 and became law in 2018.

The mastodon became the state fossil in 2022. Representative Randy Frye of Greensburg sponsored the bill after seeing a life-size mastodon skeleton at Hanover College. Mastodons are the most common Ice Age fossil in Indiana and have turned up in nearly every county.

The main symbols

The flag, the cardinal and the peony each have their own page. Indiana also has a state poem, “Indiana,” by Arthur Franklin Mapes of Kendallville, whose full text is written into the law.

2 1910s 3 1930s 1 1950s 2 1 1970s 1 1 1990s 3 2010s 2 2020s
Official symbols adopted per decade. The busiest decades were the 1930s and 2010s, with three each.

Flag, seal, song, motto and nickname

Animals

Plants and fungi

Earth and sky

Food and drink

Songs, words and language

Culture and history

Questions about Indiana's symbols

What is the Indiana state animal?
Indiana has no state mammal or animal. Its official creatures are the cardinal (state bird), Say's firefly (state insect) and the mastodon (state fossil).
What was Indiana's state flower before the peony?
The zinnia, from 1931 until the peony replaced it in 1957.
What is the Indiana state insect?
Say's firefly, adopted in 2018 after a campaign by elementary school students in West Lafayette.
Why is the mastodon Indiana's state fossil?
Mastodons are the most common Ice Age fossil in Indiana and have been found in nearly every county. The legislature adopted it in 2022.
Photo credits (5)

Something out of date? Tell us and we will check it against the law.

Sources