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Please add profiles for those who were born, lived or died in Lake County, Indiana.
History
Originally inhabited by the Potawatomi and generations of indigenous ancestors, Lake County was established by European Americans on February 16, 1837. It was named for its location on Lake Michigan.
Inland Steel Company established a plant in East Chicago in 1903 and U.S. Steel founded one in Gary in 1906; with industrial jobs and the demand ofr labor, the county's population exploded. Immigrants poured into the area from all over Central and Eastern Europe (there was also a smaller Mexican immigrant community). In addition, both black and white migrants came from many regions of the United States, particularly Appalachia and the South.
While the steel industry reigned supreme, other industries also found the county to be an ideal location for cheap land and well-developed transportation networks, such as automobiles, oil, chemicals, consumer goods, food processing, and construction supply companies.
Severe industrial decline took place during the 1973-1991 period, brought on by foreign competition, new management philosophies that called for major workforce reductions, and productivity gains from technology. The decline was particularly intense in the steel industry: steel employment exceeded 60,000 in the 1960s, and declined progressively to just 18,000 by 2015.
The industrial decline of the 1980s cast a long shadow over Lake County: the county did not regain the level of employment it had in 1980 until 1996, after which the employment level roughly flatlined. The county's economic output peaked in 1978, and has not since recovered, remaining 15-20% below the peak after adjusting for inflation. As prosperity declined, so did the immigration that powered the county's explosive population growth before 1950
Adjacent Counties
Cities & Towns
- Cedar Lake
- Crown Point (County Seat)
- Dyer
- East Chicago
- Gary
- Griffith
- Hammond
- Highland
- Hobart
- Lake Station
- Lowell
- Merrillville
- Munster
- New Chicago
- St. John
- Schererville
- Schneider
- Whiting
- Winfield
Other Townships & Communities: Ainsworth, Belshaw, Brunswick, Calumet, Cedar Creek, Center, Creston, Deep River, Deer Creek, Dinwiddie, Green Acres, Hanover, Illinoi (part), Klaasville, Kreitzburg, Lake Dalecarlia, Lakes of the Four Seasons (part), Leroy, Liverpool, New Elliott, North, Orchard Grove, Palmer, Range Line, Ross, St. John, Shelby, Southeast Grove and West Creek
Links
Indiana Dunes National Park (part)