Muncie, IN

Muncie is the principal city of east-central Indiana and home to Ball State University. Its name traces back to Munsee Town, a Lenape settlement along the White River, and its later history was shaped by manufacturing, glass, and auto-related industry. Ball State now gives Muncie much of its cultural energy, including the David Owsley Museum of Art and a steady student presence. The city is also famous as the subject of the Middletown studies, which treated it as a window into American civic life.