Indiana City was a notional community in northern

Lake County, Indiana Lake County is a county (United States), county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. In 2020, its population was 498,700, making it Indiana's List of counties in Indiana, second-most populous county. The county seat is Crown Point, Indiana, C ...

, at the mouth of the

Grand Calumet River The Grand Calumet River is a river that flows primarily into Lake Michigan. Originating in Miller Beach in Gary, it flows through the cities of Gary, East Chicago and Hammond, as well as Calumet City and Burnham on the Illinois side. The m ...

. It was located in present-day Marquette Park in Miller Beach, near the southern tip of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

. Indiana City was one of a handful of early contenders to be a port city on southern Lake Michigan, alongside

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

City West City West (formerly known as ''Neuer Westen'' ("New West") or ''Zooviertel'' ("Zoo Quarter")) is an area in the western part of central Berlin. It is one of Berlin's main commercial areas, and was the commercial centre of former West Berlin when ...

, and Michigan City. Plats for the town were drawn up in 1836 or 1837, but it was never built. Like City West to its east, the Indiana City project was doomed by the

panic of 1837 The Panic of 1837 was a financial crisis in the United States that began a major depression (economics), depression which lasted until the mid-1840s. Profits, prices, and wages dropped, westward expansion was stalled, unemployment rose, and pes ...

. The plat was not recorded until January 1838, and it is uncertain whether any plots were ever sold. Had it been built, the town would have stretched for 25 blocks, covering much of present-day Miller Beach from the lakeshore to the former Indian boundary line. The site's strategic location at the river mouth had attracted attention early on. Bennett's Tavern, which served the stagecoaches that ran along the lakeshore, had been built near the site in 1833 and remained in operation for several years thereafter. The tavern was the first regular European habitation in Lake County. Even earlier, in the 1820s,

Joseph Bailly Joseph Bailly (7 April 1774 – 21 December 1835) was a fur trader and a member of an important French Canadian family that included his uncle, Charles-François Bailly de Messein. Bailly was one of several Canadians, Canadian from prominent ...

purchased 2,000 acres in the vicinity, and laid plans for a town to be called Bailly's Harbor; but like Indiana City, this never came to fruition. In subsequent years, the mouth of the Grand Calumet drifted shut, creating the Miller Lagoons, which are now the headwaters of a river that flows in the opposite direction from that of the 1830s.

Works cited

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References

{{authority control Former populated places in Lake County, Indiana Former populated places in Indiana Gary, Indiana