The Calumet Region is the name given to the geographic areas drained by the Grand Calumet River and the Little Calumet River of northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana in the United States. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, which eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean. This region includes the northern parts of Lake and Porter counties and the western portion of La Porte county in Indiana, as well as the eastern counties of northern Illinois, Will and Cook. 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. It is a sub-region of the greater Northwest Indiana region and the even larger Great Lakes region.
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Cities
The Calumet Region includes the Indiana cities of Gary, East Chicago, Hammond, Munster, Hobart, Whiting, Crown Point, and Valparaiso.
In Illinois a number of cities and villages lie in the Calumet watershed including: the southernmost part of Chicago, Lansing, Calumet City, South Holland, Riverdale, Burnham, Calumet Park, and Blue Island
Townships
The Calumet Region includes land from the following Indiana townships in Porter County: Portage, Union, Westchester, Liberty, Center, Pine, Jackson, Washington. It includes land located within the following townships of Lake County: North, St. John, Calumet, Hobart, and Ross. It also includes Coolspring Township in La Porte County.
Origin
The name Calumet is said to come from French interpretations of either the Potawatomi name for the rivers and lake in question (“low body of deep, still water”) or is a corruption of the Old French term Chalemel, which means "reed". The word appears on early maps as Cal-La-Mick, Kil-La-Mick, Calumic, etc.
History
The first known print reference to refer to this area as a distinct geographical region is the 1755 map created by John Mitchell. In this map, however, he referred to the geographic region as "Quadoche", a name that the Iroquois had given to the Potawatomi that were known to occupy the region at that point in time.