The Middle Years

1900 to 1965
After the turn of the century, the population in what would become Burns Harbor grew gradually. While the area was largely a rural farming community, residents also found employment at the nearby steel mills and the brick and china factories.
 
In the early part of the 20th century, the Knickerbocker Ice Company harvested ice from Mud Lake on land the company owned in the dunes. Sand-mining firms operated north of the South Shore Railroad tracks, providing employment for some local residents.
    
By 1920 a number of vacation cottages were built in the area by summer residents. The opening of the Dunes Highway (U.S. 12) in 1923 and U.S. 20 in 1932 spurred both residential and commercial development.

After World War II, residential lots were developed in a random manner along all the roads of the area that would become Burns Harbor. Three mobile home parks were built, as well.  
  
The Great South Shore Railroad Train Wreck - June 19, 1909
On June 19, 1909, only one year after the South Shore Railroad opened the Shadyside, Meadowbrook and Baillytown flag stops in historic Burns Harbor, the Shadyside neighborhood was the site of the worst train wreck in the history of the South Shore. Twelve people were killed, and 52 injured.
            

 
Gary School Farm
From 1911 to c. 1917 the Gary Public School System, under the leadership of William A. Wirt, operated the Gary School Farm on the current site of the Burns Harbor Town Complex. The 160-acre agricultural training school consisted of an orchard and dairy farm operated under the supervision of Purdue University.
    
Alone in the Dunes - George Blagg & Diana of the Dunes
Despite its close-knit community, historic Burns Harbor was also the chosen home of two people who sought solitude in the dunes.
    
George Blagg, "the old man of the sand hills," was a Civil War veteran who lived a solitary life in the dunes for 30 years in a shack near the site of the current Bailly Generating Station until his death in 1914.    

  

 

 

      
    
   
  
 

Tourism businesses increased once again in 1932, after U.S. 20 opened to traffic. While it initially relieved congestion on U.S. 12, it eventually became even more dangerous, because the span through historic Burns Harbor had no traffic lights or posted speed limits.
        

 
The 1940 plat map of historic Burns Harbor (please see below) shows some of these businesses.
  
    
Porter County Plat Book, 1940 - Historic Burns Harbor
  

1. Boo Family Farm
2. Conrad Carlson Dairy Farm
3. Nick Sovich - Conoco Service Station
4. Emil Johnson - Dunes Midway Garage
5. Dunes Nursery
6. Adair Foundation
7. Virgil Hokanson Family Residence
8. Emil Johnson Residence
9. Oscar & Irene Nelson Residence
10. Anna Poparad Residence & Farm
11. Tony Sherri - Goat Farm
12. John Stefanko - Family Farm
13. Sonny's Oak Shades (Restaurant & Cabins)
14. Verplank Garage
15. The Peterson Farm
16. Chicago South Shore & South Bend Railroad
17. Dunes Highway - U.S. 12
18. Dunes Relief Highway - U.S. 20
19. Farmers State Bank
20. Westport Community Club
21. Meadowbrook Girl Scout Camp

Camp Meadowbrook Girl Scout Camp - 1946 to 1963
In 1946 the Gary Girl Scout Council bought 49 acres south of U.S. 12 and north of the Little Calumet River in what is now Burns Harbor for the development of a camp. The camp name was taken from the name of the nearby South Shore railroad stop.
  
In 1963 the camp property was sold to Bethlehem Steel and the Girl Scout Council moved the camp to rural Valparaiso. Meadowbrook Road is a last reminder of the South Shore stop and the camp.

Westport Homemakers
In March 1949, 14 local women formed a home economics club. Because the group included members from Westchester and Portage Townships, the names were combined and the club was called the Westport Homemakers.
  
During the 1950s, the members conceived the idea of establishing a community club and building a clubhouse. Members held numerous fundraisers, finally raising enough to buy land for a new clubhouse, which was built in 1954 on old S.R. 149, now Westport Road.
     

      
Westport Community Club 
The Westport Community Club, incorporated in 1954, brought people together, helped to create a bond between area residents and became a center for community activity.
  
The club provided a place for community groups to meet and sponsored a teen club, a 4-H club and scouting groups. Annual town smorgasbords were held as well as Easter, Halloween and Christmas parties for the children of the Westport community. Members were also eligible for discounted rentals of the clubhouse.

After just a few years, the residents of historic Burns Harbor informally adopted the name Westport for their community.
     

        
A Note on Names - Meadowbrook, Shadyside, Westport 
Three neighborhood names came into use in the 20th century area that would become Burns Harbor. Meadowbrook and Shadyside took their names from nearby flag-stop stations on the South Shore Railroad. Westport, which eventually became the general name for the area, came into use after the creation of the Westport Community Club.  

 

 

Protest & Change
 
NIPSCO Generating Plant
In 1929 the Northern Indiana Public Service Company bought 300 acres on the shore of Lake Michigan just east of what is now Burns Harbor.

On the site, some 30 years later, NIPSCO built two coal-fired generating stations and a 345,000 kilowatt substation to provide power for the Midwest and Burns Harbor steel mills.
 
Bethlehem Steel Land Purchase, 1956
In 1956 Bethlehem Steel Corporation, through a subsidiary (Lake Shore Development Corporation), began purchasing land in what had come to be known as Westport.

In 1958 Bethlehem Steel Corporation revealed that it had been buying land in the area, although it did not make a formal commitment to build a steel plant until 1962, when it announced its intention to build a finishing mill in the area.

Preservationists Oppose Construction
Bethlehem Steel bought a total of about 4,000 acres. The Central Dunes, considered to be the finest dunes in the area, were included. Preservationists decried the plan to destroy these unique natural formations to allow construction of the steel mill in Burns Harbor and the Port of Indiana in Portage.

Although Westport residents supported the new mill, some area dunes residents, such as the artist John Hawkinson, and Virginia and Knute Reuterskiold, objected to the construction and to selling their land to Bethlehem Steel.

Preservationists joined together to form the Save the Dunes Council and launched a fierce legislative battle to save the Central Dunes. The group's efforts delayed construction of the Burns Harbor steel mill and the Port of Indiana, but ultimately failed to preserve the Central Dunes. All the private property owners eventually sold to Bethlehem. 
   

 
John Hawkinson - Artist and Dunes Activist
Author, illustrator and naturalist John Hawkinson was the last dunes land owner to sell property to Bethlehem Steel.
 
Against great hardship, long after other landowners had succumbed to pressure from the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, Hawkinson stood firm in his refusal to sell his two-acre weekend retreat, although it was totally surrounded by the new steel plant. He finally had to sell when access to his property was cut off and his well went dry. 

Howlin' Hill and the Port of Indiana
 

 
David Tutweiller's evocative painting of Howlin' Hill (pictured above) was inspired by a January 1961 photo taken by Herb Read. A rare turret dune, Howlin' Hill stood 150 feet above Lake Michigan and its base was the size of 68 football fields.
 


Continue by clicking on the "Building Bethlehem Steel" tab above...

Building Bethlehem Steel

Construction Begins, 1962
Bethlehem Steel began building the new steel plant in 1962 with the construction of the 160-inch plate mill, which opened two years later.

Blast Furnace Starts Up, 1969
Late in 1969, the plant's first huge blast furnace started up. A second giant blast furnace was fired up in early 1972, giving Bethlehem a total iron-making capacity of approximately 10,000 tons a day.

A Brand New Town
 
A New Name: Burns Harbor
Burns Harbor is named for Randall Burns, one of the leaders of the 1926 construction of what is known as Burns Ditch, a channel that connects the Little Calumet River to Lake Michigan, just west of Burns Harbor in Portage Township. Because he was the first person to sign the petition to build it, Burns' name was given to the ditch.
 
A Brand New Town: 1966 to 1967
By 1966, after rejecting the idea of annexation to either Portage or Porter, most residents of Westport favored incorporation as a new town.
 
With the promise of legal and financial assistance from Bethlehem Steel Corporation, an incorporation committee of local residents was formed in August 1966. An election was held that year to name the town, as the name Westport was already in use in Indiana. Burns Harbor was selected and a petition for incorporation was filed with the Porter County Commissioners in November.

Incorporation was slowed by a protest from residents of the Crocker neighborhood, located within the southwest corner of the proposed town limits, and by a surprise annexation attempt by Portage.

On Sept. 9, 1967, the Porter County Commissioners passed an ordinance establishing the Town of Burns Harbor. The first census showed the population to be 1,263 residents.

Following incorporation, the first Town Board was elected in October and set to work establishing a budget and setting up the town government.
 
The First Town Board
The first town election was held on Oct. 7, 1967. The following individuals were elected to the first Town Council:

• Frank Brock
• Joseph Gilbreath
• James Donella
• Emil Poparad
• Virgil Hokanson
• Betty Boo, Clerk-Treasurer

The First Town Hall
In 1968 Bethlehem Steel offered to donate and remodel a house and an outbuilding on the former Earl Ferguson farm on Boo Road. The house was to be used for town offices and the outbuilding for a town hall. The Town Council accepted the offer and began to meet in the remodeled outbuilding in 1969.

A Growing Community, 1967 to present

Bailly Nuclear Plant, 1967 to 1981
In 1967 NIPSCO announced plans to build a nuclear generating plant west of its existing coal plant on the shore of Lake Michigan. The project was estimated to cost $107,238,375.

In 1972 Concerned Citizens Against the Bailly Nuclear Site was formed. In 1975 the Save the Dunes Council and the Joint Intervenors joined the Concerned Citizens to protest NIPSCO's proposed nuclear plant.

In April 1975 the Atomic Energy Commission reported that the proposed nuclear plant would violate federal guidelines. Finally, in 1981 NIPSCO announced it had cancelled construction of the Bailly Nuclear Plant. 

1. Air Products Inc.
2. Aluminum Welding & Machine Works
3. Anderson Co.
4. Phil Bender Super 100
5. Bob's Masonry, Inc.
6. Burns Harbor Plaza
7. Cope's Texaco Service
8. Dunes Midway Garage
9. Bob Genda Chevrolet
10. Northern Indiana Bank and Trust Co.
11. Town Engineer, Chester L. Stemp & Associates
12. Tollefson's Super Shell Service
13. Ziebart Auto and Truck Rustproofing
14. Lakeland
15. Town Hall (future)
16. Town Hall (present)
17. Westport Community Club

    

     

     

      
      
     
     
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   
   
   
 
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, 1978
In 1978 the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore bought land adjoining the Little Calumet River through the Town of Burns Harbor.

The purchase provided preservation of the area as well as improved public access to fishing, and connected the east and west unites of the national park. 

 

 

New Housing, New Residents
Following the installation of municipal water lines and sewers, developers began to take an interest in building new subdivisions in Burns Harbor.

Although the small Indian Springs and Stanley Subdivision developments had been build in the 1950s, the first modern subdivision did not become a reality until developer T. Cliff Fleming's The Village in Burns Harbor was approved in 2003.



Located on 60 acres on the north side of U.S. 20, midway between S.R. 149 and Salt Creek Road, the development is designed to provide modern homes with a vintage look, in a setting that provides quiet streets and neighborhood parks.

Burns Harbor now has four additional subdivisions, which are in various stages of construction: Harbor Trails, Parkwood Estates, Trail Creek and Corlin's Landing.

A Plan for the Future, 2008
In 2008 in response to the town's new construction, population growth, increased traffic and demand for public services, the Burns Harbor Town Council undertook an updating of the town's Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinance.

In 2009 the Town Council initiated a planning process for the development of a recognizable downtown and an enhanced U.S. 20 corridor.

 

  
  
   
 
 
 
 
 





Business is Booming, 2011
Its proximity to the ArcelorMittal steel mill and to I-94 makes Burns Harbor an ideal location for businesses serving long-distance truckers as well as area residents.

A truck stop, a fireworks store, car dealers, gas stations and other businesses line U.S. 20 while industrial operations such as Praxair and Aluminum Welding & Machine Works are located elsewhere in town.