Purdue University Northwest Archives and Special Collections

Polish In America Collection

Through a generous donation of the Pinkowski family, the Hammond campus Special Collections hold a large, valuable collection of books on Polish history in America. If you have any questions, please contact us. 

The Calumet Region

Northwest Indiana, nicknamed "The Region '' after the Calumet Region, comprises Lake, Porter, LaPorte, Newton, Jasper, and Starke counties in Indiana. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area.

It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, which eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean. It is a sub-region of the greater Northwest Indiana region and the even larger Great Lakes region. Since much of this region is on the south shore of Lake Michigan, it is sometimes referred to as the "South Shore". Because it was initially cut off from the rest of the state due to natural geographic barriers like the Kankakee Marsh to the south, the Calumet Region was the last-settled portion of Indiana.

The Project

This project was inspired by The Calumet Region, a Master Bibliography published by Lance Trusty of Purdue University Calumet in 1985. Since his work is approaching 40 years old, we decided to not only update it, but make it web based so we can continually add to it. We view this work as organic, growing, and changing, community driven project. We believe this area with its unique population, culture, geography, and location is deserving of research. This website quite simply is trying to highlight the history of this area to assist researchers. Thank you for visiting.