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New Chicago, Indiana

20 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1900 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Hobart Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46342. The Survey maps it on the Gary quadrangle. 1,999 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 636 feet above sea level.

New Chicago within Lake County

Population over time

2 figures

New Chicago fell from 2,035 to 1,999 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.

YearPeople Change
20102,035
20201,999-36 (-2%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 20 printed sheets

Matched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.

Fires near this place

571 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 571 fires within 5 miles of New Chicago between 1992 and 2020, burning about 7,045 acres in total. 16 started naturally. 63 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause Fires
Railroad operations and maintenance183
Missing data/not specified/undetermined142
Debris and open burning79
Arson/incendiarism63
Misuse of fire by a minor34
Fireworks21
Equipment and vehicle use18
Natural16
Recreation and ceremony6
Smoking4
Other causes4
Power generation/transmission/distribution1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

DateCause SizeReported by Name on the report
9 September 1999Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreFLEA2
6 September 1998Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreRAIL FIRE
5 September 1998Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMISSEDFIRE
5 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenance7.0 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreTENNESSEE
5 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenance53 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMANY
26 September 1995Arson/incendiarism2.1 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreDIAMOND
19 September 1999Arson/incendiarism2.0 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreBUFFALO
18 September 2005Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreWEST BEACH

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Lake County

Mines and quarries near this place

2 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of New Chicago: 1 producer, 1 past producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where SiteCommodity StatusRecorded
Box Sand Co PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionPast Producer
Crisman Sand CompanySand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Every working recorded in Lake County

Storms near this place

2 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names New Chicago in 2 storm reports between 2007 and 2022: 1 thunderstorm wind, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

WhenEvent Place namedHarm What the report says
May 2007Thunderstorm WindNew Chicago$5,000Several tree limbs were blown down. One damaged a roof and siding on a home on Van Buren Street.
June 2022HailNew Chicago-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Lake County

Nearest settlements

The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.

Map PlaceDistance Sheets
Liverpool1.1 miles20
Hobart2.1 miles20
Lake Station2.2 miles19
Aetna2.5 miles20
Mansard Du Lac2.6 miles20
Duneland Village of Gary2.8 miles20
Duneland Village3.1 miles20
Miller3.1 miles20

Elsewhere

Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.

Wikipedia article on New ChicagoAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q965425The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0).

Provenance

This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 440035. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.

Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.

Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.