Strange Maps has an interesting map, showing the migration of the the mean center of the the United States’ population over the years. From 1880 or 1890 through 1940 that center was in southern Indiana. Since then, it’s been moving westward and a bit southward. Now it’s in south-central Missouri.
This migration of population centers, incidentally, has been used as an argument for why Indiana should be on Central Time. Since most of the population is west of us, it makes sense to keep more of our business hours overlapping population centers to the west. On the other hand, I suppose political and economic power hasn’t necessarily moved westward in lockstep with the country’s population.
1910 just proves that IU is the center of everything!