Evansville IN (Indiana)

Evansville is an Ohio River cruise port and city in Indiana USA (Vanderburgh County). By population (around 120,000), the city is ranked Indiana's 3rd-largest, following Indianapolis (state's capital) and Fort Wayne (Southern Indiana's largest). Evansville was founded in 1812 (1817-incorporated) and received city status in 1847.

Port Evansville (locode USEVV) is a major Ohio River port with a modern infrastructure and direct rail and highway connections. Evansville is also designated as a Port of Entry, allowing it to handle both domestic and international cargo shipping. The Port's largest international exports include chemicals (64%), heavy equipment (18%) and foods (5%). Ohio River also connects Evansville with the Great Lakes and also with foreign markets (via New Orleans' Port NOLA).

As cruise port, Evansville was introduced with American Cruise Lines/ACL's 2024 summer program and included in the schedule of the ACL riverboat American Heritage (fka Queen of the Mississippi). The news was announced by ACL in August 2022.

Next table shows ACL's 13-night/14-day itinerary (between Missouri and Pennsylvania via Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio) which was scheduled for the period July-August 2024 and promo-priced from USD 7755 per person with double occupancy.

Cruise ships in Evansville dock at Inland Marina. On the waterfront and to the north are two of the city's unique tourist attractions - the LST Dock (where is permanently moored USS LST-325 /a 1943-built landing ship tank, now serving as a WW2-themed museum) and Bally's Evansville (Hotel & Casino).

Indiana's first casino Bally's Evansville (1995-opened) was originally functioning on a riverboat (City of Evansville). The casino boat was an exact replica of the 1866-built Robert E. Lee (paddlewheel/sidewheel steamboat). In 2013, the casino boat (length 94 m / 310 ft, width 21 m / 70 ft, total public space 47863 ft2 / 4447 m2) was renamed Tropicana Evansville. Since 2018, Bally's Evansville is land-based (hotel and casino) property and owned by GLP-Gaming and Leisure Properties Inc.

Evansville Airport serves 30+ regularly scheduled domestic flights linking to Sanford/Orlando FL (by Allegiant Air), Charlotte NC and Dallas TX (by American Airlines/American Eagle), Atlanta GA (by Delta Air Lines and Delta Connection), and Chicago IL (American Airlines and Delta Air). Cargo flights (by FedEx Express) link to Memphis TN.

Four major railways serve Evansville's freight rail shipping - CSX, Evansville Western, Indiana Southwestern, and Norfolk Southern. The cargo trains are sorted at Howell Yard, which facilities have monthly capacity to handle ~3000 containers and trailers.

The current-day city's economy is largely based on trade, being Evansville Metro's principal city and serving a large tri-state (Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky) area that groups 30 counties (10x in Illinois, 11x in Indiana, 9x in Kentucky) and has combined population 0,9+ million. Evansville's major industries include healthcare/medical sciences (Deaconess Health System, Ascension St Vincent Evansville, hospitals), banking/finances, higher education (Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation, Indiana Ivy Tech Community College, Evansville University, Southern Indiana University), manufacturing, logistics/transportation, energy-related businesses, retail shopping.

In Evansville are headquartered large corporations like Escalade Inc (sporting goods), Old National Bank, OneMain Holdings (finance), Berry Global (plastic packaging products), Shoe Carnival (footwear), AmeriQual Group (food processing/production-packaging-assembly-distribution), Accuride (commercial vehicle components), Atlas World Group (moving and storage), Anchor Industries (ship anchors and mooring equipment), Evana Tool & Engineering (industrial machinery), Traylor Bros Inc (heavy construction), Koch Enterprises (heavy equipment), Lewis Bakeries (bakery foods), MetroNet (internet, TV, voice services), Red Spot Paint & Varnish (coatings for plastics), Karges Furniture.

The tourism industry benefits from several large museums (Children's, African American, Wartime, Reitz Home, Arts, History & Science), Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden (1928-opened). Angel Mounds State Historic Park (located approx 8 mi / 13 km southeast of the city), Wesselman Woods Nature Preserve (200 acres / 81 hectares of virgin forest), Wesselman Park (golf course, outdoor sports courts, playground), large-capacity sports facilities (Ford Center, Bosse Field, Double Cola Soccer Complex, Goebel Soccer Complex, Swonder Ice Arena), annual festivals and street fairs (West Side Nut Club Fall, Germania Mannerchor Volksfest).