East Chicago

East Chicago is a city in Lake County, Indiana, and a suburb of Chicago. East Chicago had its start in 1893, and, with the arrival of Inland Steel in 1903, it soon became the most industrialized city in America, with some 80% of the area relegated to heavy industry. Other firms like Republic Steel, Youngstown Steel, LaSalle Steel, and U.S. Steel began operations too, pushing out some 600,000 tons of steel in 1914 and 8.6 million tons at peak capacity in 1978. Refineries and plants lined the Indiana Harbor Ship Canal that connected the Grand Calumet River to Lake Michigan.

The downside of all this was substantial pollution such as lead, resulting in the town becoming a Superfund site. Then the steel crisis of the 1970s happen, and unemployment and depopulation skyrocketed. These events transformed East Chicago into the emerging more diversified community that it is today.

Clayton Mark built a model community called Marktown here during the heyday of steel operations, and it is somewhat of an urban exploration attraction in its dilapidated state.

Get in
There are direct commuter trains from Chicago via the South Shore Line.