Terre Haute (population 59,614) is the county seat for Vigo County (population app.105,848). It serves as a regional employment, retail, education, cultural, dining, entertainment and health-care hub for more than a dozen surrounding counties in Indiana and east-central Illinois.

Vigo County's name honors Colonel Francis Vigo (pronounced Vee-go) (1747-1836). Vigo, born in Sardinia, off Italy, became a prosperous merchant-trader in St. Louis. During the Revolutionary War he supplied George Rogers Clark with information, money, and materials for use in ending British influence in the Northwest Territory. Moving to Vincennes after the war, Vigo, now a naturalized citizen, rendered conspicuous military and civil service. The United States delayed repaying Vigo's crucial wartime loans, and he died practically impoverished. Consequently, Vigo's wish to donate a courthouse bell went unfulfilled until the government compensated his heirs and they subsidized a bell for the 1888 courthouse.

Source: Vigo County Historical Society Web site.