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IANA tz database · America/Indiana/Petersburg · zdump −v

The Strangest Clock in the Lower 48

Of every time zone in the contiguous United States, Pike County, Indiana changed its mind the most. Since railroad time arrived in 1883 it jumped between Central and Eastern zones six times — twice reversing within a single year — then sat frozen on Eastern Standard Time for 28 years while refusing to observe daylight saving at all. The line below is colored by which zone the county was in.

Central ⇄ Eastern zone flips
28 yrs
Frozen on EST, no DST · 1977–2006
−5:49:07
Local Mean Time · until 1883
−6/−5/−4
Three distinct UTC offsets

Offset from UTC, 1776 → 2030

Local mean time Central zone Eastern zone
1883 · Nov 18

Central time arrives

Railroad standard time replaces the county's local mean time (−5:49). Pike County starts life in the Central zone at −6:00 CST.

1965

A one-year jump east

The county leaps to Eastern Standard Time (−5) — and skips daylight saving. Barely eighteen months later it reverses.

1966 · Oct

Back to Central

Pike County returns to the Central zone and resumes the normal CST/CDT sawtooth for another decade.

1977 – 2006

The 28-year freeze

The county moves to Eastern Standard Time and stops moving — no spring-forward, no fall-back, a flat line at −5 for nearly three decades, in step with most of Indiana.

2006

Central, for one last year

Indiana's statewide DST reform reshuffles counties. Pike lands back in Central with daylight saving — its final Central year ever.

2007 →

Eastern, and modern at last

Within a year it flips to Eastern once more and finally keeps normal daylight saving — the EST/EDT sawtooth every other Eastern county has run since 1966.