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Calumet Region

Calumet Region
Although the Calumet region has no fixed boundaries, most Chicagoans understand it to be the part of the metropolitan area surrounding Lake Calumet and the Calumet river system. By the 1880s, the heavy industry beginning to dominate the region also helped to define it. The relationship between the two definitions was apparent in a 1957 Chicago report that described the region as lying south of 79th Street, stretching from Joliet to Gary, Indiana. That region supplied 95 percent of the metropolitan area's jobs in primary metal industries, 72 percent in petroleum and coal products, 30 percent in chemicals, stone, clay, and glass products, and 21 percent in transportation equipment.

Janice L. Reiff

Bibliography
“The Calumet Area—Here's How City Defines It.” South End Reporter, April 21, 1957.

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