Between 1852 and 1865, the first railroads were built to reach Chicago allowing the Midwest to be
accessible to the greater population.7 Soon stations and shipping points were established along the
routes, eventually forming the nucleus of the towns to be established. Among these points were Porter,
Calumet (Chesterton), Lake Station, and Dyer. The railroads allowed goods to be transported from the east
rapidly and allowed raw materials to be brought in for new development.
Until the twentieth century, the shores of Lake Michigan in Indiana were relatively wild. Chicago was
growing rapidly and industries needed land on which to expand; land near the shores of Lake Michigan.
In about 1895, the federal government attempted to make the Grand Calumet River navigable through and to
approximately ½ mile east of Hammond. "Some parts of the river were dredged to a depth of ten feet three
different times, and were as often filled by refuse from the George H. Hammond Packing Company, and by
sewage from Hammond and Burnham." The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers abandoned the project in 1903,
reporting no navigation on the river.8
When the United States Steel Corporation built its industrial complex on Lake Michigan in Gary, it moved
the Grand Calumet River channel about 1½ miles south. Hundreds of men and teams of horses and mules
leveled the sand hills to prepare the plant site. During mill operations, millions of gallons of water were pumped each day from Lake Michigan and eventually
discharged into the stream. In addition, water poured back into the river from the new roofs and paved
streets of Gary.
Standard Oil moved its operations to Whiting to be closer to the Midwest markets. Also, there were more
railroads converging in Chicago than any where else in the world. In addition, the lake provided cheap
water for transportation and industrial purposes. Sand ridges were leveled and sloughs were filled. Water
lines were constructed into Lake Michigan to bring water into the plant and eventually the city. Sewers
were also built to drain Berry Lake and the low areas near the refinery.9
In the late 1800s, Inland Steel breathed life back into the City of East Chicago. The company was the
largest industry to move into East Chicago. When the company representatives visited the site they had
purchased, however, they found that 20 of the 50 acres were under Lake Michigan. The plant rapidly
expanded as the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal was nearing completion. In 1907, the Indiana General Assembly
enacted legislation allowing industries to fill Lake Michigan to the limits of the state's jurisdiction.
The filling process allowed Inland to dispose of slag and continue to expand operations lakeward.10
Inland Steel 1997 (click to enlarge)
Sand was realized as a valuable commodity and provided a source of income for many years. Railroads
needed sand for track elevation and municipalities needed it for filling. The site of the Chicago World's
Fair, the Columbian Exposition of 1893, was filled in with sand from the area just east of Miller.
Railroads were built along the side of dunes so that steam shovels on the cars could shovel sand directly
into the cars. Sand was also sucked from the shallow waters of the lake by barges. In 1898, more than
300 cars of sand were shipped from the Dune Park station every day.11
Natural resources other than sand were found to be a source of income. Sawmills prospered because timber
was plentiful. The dunes were filled with white pine and cedar. Roads, buildings, and boats were built
with the lumber taken from the shore areas. Fish and furbearing animals continued to be a source of income for the new settlers as they were for the
Native Americans and early traders. Rich deposits of lake clay and boulder clay stimulated a
brick and tile business bringing the establishment of the City of Hobart and the Town of Porter.
In 1926, Burns Ditch was completed, changing the nature and course of the Little Calumet River. Because of
periodic floods of the Little Calumet, the surrounding area was a marshland. The river would flow over
the roads of Gary and in winter, cause ice jams at the Broadway bridge. In 1908, Randall Burns of Chicago
launched an effort to "reclaim" the land. The high sands of the Tolleston Beach and the dunes separating
the marsh and Lake Michigan were cut. The flow of the Little Calumet and the Deep River, which joins the
Little Calumet, were diverted into the lake just east of Ogden Dunes. The Little Calumet was also
dredged to the mouth of Salt Creek. These projects reclaimed more than 20,000 acres in Porter County and
in Gary.12
Midwest Steel and Bethlehem Steel companies, looked to Indiana for a new harbor. In the late 1950s and
early 1960s, the companies bought land in the sand dunes. Here two new steel mills were erected. The
harbor constructed near Burn's Ditch (Porter Burns Waterway) provided a successful port on the Great Lakes
for these companies.13
After 1901, not only was an increasing portion of the southern Lake Michigan landscape altered by man,
but the new man-made features were beginning to degrade what was left of the natural environment. The
air became full of the flue dust, coal and coke, and iron oxide which was emitted from the steel
industries. Other waste materials were spouting from the new inhabitants such as effluent from rolling
mills, solid and liquid waste from pickling lines, and slag from furnace operations. Most of these materials
were discharged in wastewater directly to the Grand Calumet River, landfilled, or lakefilled.14
Over-fishing the resource in the lake impacted the fishery. The introduction of the sea lamprey also
contributed to the alteration of the fish community. First identified in Lake Michigan in 1936, they
gained access to the Great Lakes from the oceans through man-made shipping canals. The lamprey population
grew rapidly as parasites on the native lake trout and burbot. Eventually, lake trout was eliminated from
Lake Michigan due to improved commercial fishing nets and the sea lampreys.
By 1949, alewife was abundant in Lake Michigan, having also invaded through the shipping canals. The
alewife population exploded since with the collapse of the lake trout; there were few predators. By 1960,
approximately 99% of the biomass in Lake Michigan consisted of alewife. The alewife drastically
impacted the ecology of Lake Michigan. The fish is planktivorous and due to its abundance, reduced the
plankton population necessary to foster native planktivores. Alewife predation on larval fish of several
species was also thought to contribute to a declining fishery.
In the middle 1960s, efforts were made to rehabilitate the Lake Michigan fishery resource. Lampricide
was used to control the sea lamprey. In 1965, lake trout were restocked. Coho salmon were stocked in
1966 and chinook salmon were stocked in 1967 by the State of Michigan. Other Lake Michigan states began
stocking salmon as this species proved to provide a healthy sport fishery. Although salmon is not a native
specie of Lake Michigan, its presence, along with the new population of trout, were beginning to diminish
the alewife population. As a result, native species suppressed by the alewife started to come back.
More recently, alewife populations have again increased. In the early summer of 1996, a colder than
normal spring and the large populations led to a major die-off. According to Jim Francis, Fisheries
Biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, "Lake Michigan is a deep-water, cold lake
except for here in the southern part. The area Indiana owns is shallow compared to the rest of the lake,
so it warms up quicker. Alewives like warm water, so they come here. . . . With the prevailing westerly
winds, alewives that die will wash up on the eastern shore near New Buffalo and Michigan City." Tom
Anderson of the Save the Dunes Council reflected that the die-off was the worst he remembered since the
1960s.16
Today, more exotic species are being identified in the waters of Lake Michigan. The presence of
nonindigenious species has coincided with theopening of the St. Lawrence Seaway; however commercial ships
and recreational boats also contribute to the spread of these creatures. In addition to direct influences
on the fishery, indirect impacts such as poor land use practices, dam construction, and water pollution
have affected the fish community.
