Northwest Indiana

The Region, or Northwest Indiana or even the Calumet Region is perched along Lake Michigan's southern shores and is made up of five counties:  Lake, Porter, Jasper, LaPorte, and Newton in Indiana.  

Lake County is the largest in population with a US Census in 2000 of 484,564.  The cities and towns of Lake County include:  East Chicago, Gary, Hammond, Whiting, St. John, Hobart, Crown Point, Griffith, Schererville, Merrillville, Lowell, Cedar Lake, and Dyer.   See link to Wikipedia Lake County entry

Porter County is next in terms of population with Census in 2000 of 146,798.  The cities and towns of Porter County include:  Portage, Valparaiso, Chesterton, Burns Harbor, Hebron, and Kouts.  See link to Wikipedia Porter County entry

LaPorte County follows with a Census population in 2000 of 110,106.  LaPorte and Michigan City are incorporated as Cities and towns include: Westville, Wanatah, Union Mills, Rolling Prairie, Long Beach, LaCrosse and Hanna.  See link to Wikipedia LaPorte County entry

Jasper County is next with a population in 2000 of 30,043.  Cities and towns include:  Wheatfield, Roselawn, Demotte and Rensselaer.   See link to Wikipedia Jasper County entry

Followed by Newton County, nestled along the Illinois border with immediate access to Interstate 65.  Newton County showed a population of 14,566 in 2000.  Cities and towns include:  Brook, Kentland,