Hammond Times, Volume 6, Number 255, Hammond, Lake County, 17 April 1912 — Page 13

THE TIMES.

5

IIAiA HARBOR

SUPREME

Mouth of Canal She Built Has Never Gone Back an Inch Since She Was First Conceived.

was born a few months later. This Is rather a light treatment of so Important a subject as the founding of a city, for the men who were

back of the project were serious-minded men of big ideas, but It illustrates the way things are donn in Lake coun-

ity. Iake county dries are planned

about the same way that the average man plans his residence. It is a matter of serious and loving thought, but the plans cover more territory; that is about all. The Inland I.oeatea. Well, having laid out Indiana Har-

1 bor, the East Chicago company sot

j about to devise sorne way of inducing City On Lake Michigan aXPpP to live there. Finally Albert De

Witt Ersktne, the president of the com

pany at that time, beard of a promising industry that sought a location. The beautiful map and some enthusiastic conversation did the business, and the Inland Steel company located its plant at the mouth of the proposed harbor and started to grow. It lias been growing ever since.

Lake county builds a new citv every! The Inland Steel company had no use

ten years.' Whenever a group of men have a little surplus energy they want to work off they build a new city, or if they don't want the job to last too Jong they build a suburb to some city that has already been built.

The first clean-cut piece of municipal architecture that was turned out In Lake county was the. city of Indiana Harbor. When Indiana Harbor was started Hammond was a town of considerable sire, AVhiting was quite a place and Kast Chicago had shaken off its swaddling clothes. The East Chicago company had taken over the properties o? a number of defunct land companies and had an enormous amount of acreage. More land than it knew what to do with. ; ' Motion Is Carried. Somebody suggested, "Let's build a city,? and the rest of the directors of the company said, "You're on," and Indiana, Harbor was conceived.. "Where shall we build It?" was the next question, and everybody scratched his head. "Let's make a harbor on Lake Michigan, dig a canal to the Calumet river, extend a branch to Lake George, es

tablish imaginary dock lines, sell factory sites along them and a city will grow." So a beautiful canal was laid out on the map. a subdivision was laid out between the canal and Lake Michigan, everybody went home and ate a good dinner and felt as though he had done good day's work. Indiana Harbor

ture. The canal was the object of their loyalty. Canal the Magnet. "Indiana Harbor Is to be the great Indiana port of entry," said they," even though their eyes belied their words as they looked into the slime-covered ditch that they called the canal. "The harbor and canal will some day connect the lake with the Calumet river and will open up undreamed of

possibilities for navigation." Through all of the years of pioneering the faith of the people of Indiana Harbor in their canal was unshaken. But their faith grew as they saw the ditch grow, while the East Chicago company poured its hundreds of thousands of dollars into it. Still other Industries sought locations along that magic strip. The confidence of the people of Indiana Harbor

and East Chicago was reflected to thei

promoters of various industrial concerns and one after another they located along the canal, until today practically every acre of ground on the east side of the canal and north of the Calu-

for a harbor at that time, for it did not met r,ver ls so,d out to manufacturing

make its own steel at that time, but it looked forward to the time when it would be big enough to do -o and would need a harbor for the purpose of receiving shipments of ore.

To be located on an imaginary harbor Yas better than to be located where a harbor was Impossible, and so Indiana Harbor was chosen. This merely illustrates the value, of a plat, the pulling power of an idea. Rta; riant Growl. And so it happened that the promoters Of the Inland Steel company were resourceful men Rnd their business grew. In spite of the activity of the United States Steel trust, the Inland Steel company, an Independent, grew. It seemed to be able to get the business.

More and more men were employed. The East Chicago company sold lots to men who wanted homaa, arid later took up the problem of actually digging the canal. There was a hard fight with the railroads which crossed it, but a compromise was finally effected and the rail

roads built bridges. The harbor was dredged, the- canal was dug, other industries located along the channel, and Indiana Harbor grew. It grew like an ill weed. It grew in spite of the unpaved streets of its pioneer days. It looked forward to the time when they would be paved. The people of East Chicago lived in the fu-

WHAT CANAL WILL I

FOR CALUIT

REG ON

Cities Are Putting Up Game Battle for Waterway in North Part of County. .

concerns which either have or will build plants there. A Few Sites Left. The west side of the canal is going fast and It Is believed that a few. years more will see the sale of the last piece of canal frontage. And in the meantime the canal has become a fact. A million and a half has been spent on it. The United States government has accepted a deed to it. Appropriations have been made to build protecting piers around the harbor mouth. Other appropriations will be made on the recommendation of the board of United States army engineers and through th influence of Congressman K. IX Crura-

packer. And Indiana Harbor has grown to the point where it is larger than the city

of East Chicago, to which it ha3 been annexed. The location of the Buckeye Steel Castings company, the McClIn-tick-Marshall company, the International Smelting company, and above all, the Baldwin Locomotive works, has given the city an impetus that will make it one of the largest, if not the largest, of the communities In North township and possibly, together with East Chicago, the largest city in Lake county. Spirit Still There. The same spirit which built up the city in the face of a lack of many things which go to make an ideal townsite, made possible the-building Of a deep ?wer system which prepares the

The Calumet region has the most diversified waterway development that any one locality has ever known. The

following will give an idea of the present and prospective development of rivers, canals and harbors of this locality: Mlies of Lake Michigan shore land in Lake county, Indiana ZQ Miles of river capable of development as a waterway J 19 Miles of canal already dug for light draught boats '. . 5 Square miles of inland lakes which may become waterways 3 Miles of dockage which awaits

development . .". 190 Number of harbors in Lake county. 2 Wolf Lake harbor awaiting development 1 In twenty years Lake county will be called the Holland of America. Its canals, rivers, inland lakes and the shores of Lake MichigA, the Inland sea of the United States, will have been developed into such a comprehensive system of waterways that it will be the marvel of the west. It will have the only unobstructed inland wintering harbor on the south end of Lake Michigan, a harbor which will be so wide and so easy of access

way for rapid city building in the future. Never in the history of Indiana Harbor has the town gone back. During the tense times in 1907 when business was at a standstill in most of the other Industrial cities of the country, Indiana Harbor said, "The future warrants the development. Let's go ahead." And Indiana Harbor did go .ahead. It carried on a tremendous lot of building activity all through ihe hard times and today It la more secure In its prosperity than ever. While the plants 6f the! United States Steel company were shut down for the lack of orders the plant of the Inland Steel company went right ahead turning out steel products. Additions to

the plant were built during the recent hard times.

Xomr Fine City. And since those early days Indiana Harbor has rounded off the rough corners. It now has large business houses, splendid residences the best of school buildings, good church edifices and Improved streets and alleys. Indiana Harbor has taken on a met

ropolitan appearance. This will be more pronounced when two new traction lines, which are clamoring for admission to its confines, are given franchises. Its citizens a,re the nost progressive and aggressive of any in the entire Calumet district. With only the impetus which they themselves provide they have forced the city forward. Its commercial club has taken an active part in the question of river and

harbor development. In a recent meeting before the, board of United States army engineers Indiana Harbor talked up to Chicago and told it that the future harbor development on the south shores of Lake Micliican is to be at Indiana Harbor 'and not at Chicago and made some of the best minds in that metropolis and accept the statement as probable. Indiana Harbor has never gone back and if every power that its citizens could bring to bear in the matter of

city building is exerted it is doubtful that it will be able to overbuild in the next ten years. The potential forces in Indiana Harbor arc tremendous.

that the largest boats will be able to, enter it under their own power. Tributary tar that it will have forty mies of dockage which will furnish Ideal sites for the hundreds of manufacturing plants which will be attracted to that point in the middle west where water and rail communication meets and where vast coal fields are within easy' access; that point which for years to come will be the distributing center of the whole United States. The Age of Iron. The iron ore from the limitless Superior deposits 'will be brought hence by monster freight boats and will be fed into the fiery maws of a hundred furnaces. And they wiil be taken there without trans-shipment and at a minimum expense. And then the product will be shipped by boat and by rail to the whole

country, where It will form the frames

of skyscrapers, the hulls of lake steamers, the roadbeds of the railroads of the west, and will be put to a thousand other uses. Man's first estimate of the Calumet region must have been that It was "the land that God forgot."' He has reconsidered the matter and now there is

no locality in the world which .nature has so perfectly adapted to man's uses. The shallow lakes, which seemed to the early pioneers to be little more than vast sloughs, served to protect vast areas from encroachment by railroads and other highways, so that now Lake Calumet, Woif lake, ar.d Ike George afford the only remaining sites for great and unobstructed harbors. Conneetins Unlfrneju. The Grand Calumet river, which must have betn name, 'Grand" in a

spirit o-f fine irony, is awaiting a development that will make it the greatest commercial waterway In the west. The Indiana Harbor canal Is man's contribution to the natural waterway advantages of the region and is already lined with an imposing lot of industries. And all of this great system of waterways Is to be ronnooted with the drainage channel by the Sag canal.

which will not only drain off the sewage laden water?, but will eventually p.fford the Calumet reion a direct connection with the Great-Lakes-to-the-

Gulf canal that will become one of the

chief arteries of commerce In the fu ture.

And the spirit of progress which

prevails in the region is digging canals, forcing railroads to bridge them

straightening the river and protecting

the shallow lakea from th encroach

ments that follow such unheard Increases ln'land values.

Am K am pie. A group of Hammond men, inspired only by a desire to see the realization of their dreams of the development of these waterway facilities called together the owners of property along three miles of Calumet river frontage and got them to agree to the straightening cf the river and the digging of a new and more direct channel. A new manufacturing district is to be opened up along this part of the river and many new industries will b attracted to the splendid sites that will be afforded them by this splendid cooperation. In Gary the Indiana Steel company straightened the course of the river over two miles of its course. TUu it is seen that the people of this remarkable region are correcting the mistakes that are so glaring in the develop

ment of the Chicago river. They are laying the foundations for the future greatness of tlie region. Spacious turning basins are being dredged out to meet the needs of the future. The building of bridge obstructions ls being avoided wherever possible. Fight For Reeogaitlon. And so they are planning better than they know and future generations wi'l sing their praises for the work they have done. Public spirited men In the cities of East Chicago, Indiana Harbor, Hammond and Whiting recently appeared before the board of United States army engineers and laid before them a report on the advantages of the Calumet region's waterway facilities

J for the purpose of securing govern

mental aid in their development.

They astounded the people of Chi

cago with the figures showing the re

markable waterway possibilities of t lie Calumet region and with the magnitude of the- plana for their future development. All of the preliminary work of development has been done by privatcorporations whose faith in the region alone inspired them to spend million of dollars at the task. Now it is expected that t!i" government will take up the work that 1ms been so ablpr begun, and the next ten years is expected to witness the expenditure of millions of dollars of government money in the further development of these great waterways.

THE MOST WIDELY READ NEWSPAPER IN NORTHERN INDIANA THE TIMES.

If

Wtaft ns Qlhieff e aft tainaiiniai 'HffiffffixDiP?

In our Real Estate and Renting Department we are turning away from 5 to 20 people a day asking for homes in which to live. The Inland Steel Company is employing from 800 to 1000 additional men; The Universal Portland Cement will soon have its, new plant completed and employ 100 additional men; The Great Baldwin Locomotive Co., are getting ready to begin construction of a plant that will employ 4000 to 5000 men; The Buckeye Co., Marshall and McClintock Co., both have purchased sites for plants and when they begin will employ at least 2500 men. All these are additional to what is already here. The great question of today with us is WJUdat SUnaUll We HD Fqp DflQwses suit BmflZzma Dflarfbtor? Rents pay 15 percent interest, Real Estate values are low and will double in the next two years, good streets, sewers, wralks, lights both gas and electric, good communication by rail and street cars, a place to invest money with absolute security and Sure Profit.

CdDinnie auM Lett Us SEnow Yun

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INDIANA HARBOR

INDIANA