Indiana, United States
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Article History
Gary, city, Lake county, extreme northwest Indiana, U.S. It lies at the southern end of Lake Michigan, east of Chicago. In 1906 the town—named for Elbert H. Gary, chief organizer of the United States Steel Corporation—was laid out as an adjunct of the company’s vast new manufacturing complex. The site was chosen because it lay on navigable water midway between the iron ore beds to the north and the coal region to the south. Large areas were drained, sand dunes removed, and a meandering river rerouted. Steelworks were then built along the lakeshore, with the town to the south. The Gary Land Company, a U.S. Steel subsidiary, laid out its part of the town, constructed the streets and sidewalks, installed the sewage system, and built the waterworks and electric plant. The first ore boat arrived on July 23, 1908, and steel production began early the following year. Although Gary has some diversified manufacturing (petroleum products, chemicals, fabricated metal and machinery), it is essentially a one-industry city and has periodically suffered from declines in steel production and labour disputes. During World War I a sizable number of African Americans moved north to work in Gary, and by the 1930s they constituted one-sixth of Gary’s population. World War II drew many more, and in 1967 Richard G. Hatcher became one of the first African Americans to be elected mayor of a major U.S. city. Gary was the scene of a significant early-20th-century development in public education when William Wirt established the work-study-play school, popularly known as the platoon school, designed to attract underprivileged children. The city has experienced a significant economic decline since the 1960s. Manufacturing slumped overall, and employment at the USX (formerly U.S. Steel) Gary Works fell from more than 20,000 at midcentury to some 7,500 at century’s end; many other businesses closed as a result. Racial tensions also affected the city. A new civic centre in Gary’s downtown area was completed in the early 1980s, and by the early 21st century a number of other efforts to revitalize the city were under way. Gary is the seat of Indiana University Northwest (1922). Inc. town, 1906; city, 1909. Pop. (2000) 102,746; Gary Metro Division, 675,971; (2010) 80,294; Gary Metro Division, 708,070.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Kenneth Pletcher.
