TROUBLE WITH TIMEZONES!! Reaching back to the early 20th century, Indiana's time zones have done anything but stand still.

• Author: Wolf, Mark

It is late September 2002, the season premiere of "The West Wing," and Indiana time is about to get its close-up.

Three White House staffers are on a campaign trip in rural Indiana. While scrambling to make a tight connection to their return flight on Air Force One, they neglect to notice they've crossed into a county that doesn't observe daylight saving time. Their watches are now an hour behind the local time. They miss their flight. Sputtering ensues by people in suits.

"What do...? What do...? People, they just... They reset their watches when they commute?" blusters communications director Toby Ziegler, played by Richard Schiff, who won an Emmy for his role.

"They just change their watches every time they cross a time zone?"

And you could imagine a Greek chorus of Hoosiers responding, "Well, of course we do."

The takeaway from the scene: Navigating Indiana's time can be a bit of a lift, especially for D.C. dwellers unaccustomed to being dropped into what they consider "flyover country."

Indiana is one of 15 states divided into two time zones. But nowhere, it seems fair to say, is the division quite so intentional--or quite so historically contentious. Over the years, bills to realign the state's time zones and deal with daylight saving time have come and gone, and at least one lawmaker's vote on DST might have cost him his seat. But, legislation and public hearings aside, Hoosiers have come to accept their unique, if complicated, perspective on keeping time.

Two Time Zones, Many Voices

Of the state's 92 counties, 80 are in the Eastern time zone. The other 12 are on Central time and huddled in two groups of six each, one in the state's northwest corner near Chicago, to which the region is closely tied, and the other in the southwest corner to match Evansville, the state's third-largest city and an economic driver in the area.

Rep. Earl L. Harris Jr. was born and raised in East Chicago, Ind., and now represents Indiana House District 2 in Lake County, which abuts Chicago and is one of the six northwestern counties that observe Central time.

"(Chicago) is the No. 3 market in the country, and living right across the state line, we get Chicago media and television, so there is definitely a connectivity," says Harris, a Democrat.

"During COVID, a lot of things were scheduled on Zoom, and that became an issue for people. When we're in session (the state Capitol in Indianapolis is on Eastern time), that's the game you have to play," he says...