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Portage, Indiana

19 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1992. It stands in Portage Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46368. It stands on Crisman Ditch. The Survey maps it on the Portage quadrangle. 37,926 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 636 feet above sea level.

Portage within Porter County

On record in Portage

Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.

On the National Register 2 records

Population over time

2 figures

Portage grew from 36,828 to 37,926 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
201036,828
202037,926+1,098 (+3%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

9 surveys from 19 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.

In the county-history sources

8,499 words on this township

The county-history sources names this settlement in its chapter on Portage Township. These are the passages that mention it, exactly as the scans read.

Machine-read from a century-old scan, so expect the errors a machine makes: misspelled names, dropped words, stray characters.

Read the whole chapter on Portage Township - it names this place 10 more 10 times.

Fires near this place

469 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 469 fires within 5 miles of Portage between 1992 and 2020, burning about 1,593 acres in total. 13 started naturally. 47 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
Missing data/not specified/undetermined123
Railroad operations and maintenance121
Debris and open burning57
Arson/incendiarism47
Fireworks34
Misuse of fire by a minor26
Equipment and vehicle use19
Recreation and ceremony19
Natural13
Smoking8
Power generation/transmission/distribution1
Other causes1

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
6 September 1994Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreNORTH
5 September 1998Equipment and vehicle useunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMISSEDFIRE
4 September 2018Railroad operations and maintenance1.0 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMILL
30 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenance1.2 acresIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreCAN
27 September 1997Recreation and ceremonyunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshorePAINT
25 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreMIDDLE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in Porter County

Mines and quarries near this place

4 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 4 workings within 5 miles of Portage: 3 past producers, 1 producer. 1 still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay. 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
Lorenz Brothers Pit Number 1ClayPast Producer
Zehner PitClayPast Producer

Every working recorded in Porter County

Storms near this place

32 since 1994

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Portage in 32 storm reports between 1994 and 2025: 21 thunderstorm wind, 8 hail, 1 lightning, 1 flash flood. 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
September 2007LightningPortage$50,000A mobile home was struck by lightning, which caused a fire and damaged the mobile home beyond livable conditions.
May 2007Thunderstorm WindPortage$35,000A large tree fell onto a pickup truck and a van, crushing both. A large tree was uprooted on Charlotte Street, falling onto a house. Tree limbs and power lines were also blown down.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindPortage$5,000Numerous trees and power lines were blown down in northern Porter County.
May 2009Thunderstorm WindPortage$5,000Several large trees were blown down. A roof was blown off a picnic shelter in Woodland Park. Tree limbs and power lines were also blown down. Three horses escaped after a tree fell onto a fence. One of the horses was struck and killed by a tractor-trailer on US 20.
July 2006Thunderstorm WindPortage$5,000Trees, tree limbs and power lines were blown down across parts of northwest Porter County.
April 1994Thunderstorm WindPortage$5,000Thunderstorm winds blew down large tree limbs and power lines.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindPortage$1,000Trees and power lines were blown down.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindPortage-Numerous trees and power lines were blown down across Portage which resulted in power outages and road closures.
July 2025FloodPortage-Four inches of water was reported on roads near the intersection of Eleanor Street and Central Avenue.
May 2024HailPortage-A photo shared on social media showed quarter size hail.
July 2024Thunderstorm WindPortage-Multiple large tree limbs were blown down.
March 2022Thunderstorm WindPortage-A half inch galvanized steel pipe supporting a bird house was blown over.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindPortage-Trees were blown down on Tecumseh Street.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindPortage-Portions of a wooden fence were blown over.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindPortage-A large tree limb was blown down onto a shed.
July 2021Thunderstorm WindPortage-Numerous tree limbs were blown down. One tree limb damaged a car.
April 2020HailPortage-Several reports of hail 1 to 1.50 inches in diameter were received from the Portage area.
September 2018Thunderstorm WindPortage-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph.
May 2017Thunderstorm WindPortage-Power lines and power poles were blown down near Jellystone Park.
June 2014Thunderstorm WindPortage-Multiple large trees were blown down.
May 2013Thunderstorm WindPortage-A tree was blown down.
July 2012Thunderstorm WindPortage-Wind gusts were estimated to 70 mph. Large tree limbs were blown down.
June 2010Thunderstorm WindPortage-Widespread tree damage was reported in Portage.
May 2010Flash FloodPortage-Numerous roads were flooded and closed in the Portage and Chesterton areas including the intersection of State Road 2 and State Road 49; Governor Road and Robins Road. A few cars were stranded in the flood waters. Creeks and ditches were reported out of their banks along with flooded fields.
August 2010Thunderstorm WindPortage-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph. Lawn chairs and patio furniture were overturned.
June 2009Thunderstorm WindPortage-Wind gusts were estimated to 60 mph.
February 2024HailPortage-no account filed
October 2020HailPortage-no account filed
June 2011HailPortage-no account filed
April 2010HailPortage-no account filed
April 1996HailPortage-no account filed
June 1994HailPortage-no account filed

Every storm recorded in Porter 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
Crisman0.8 miles19
Willow Creek0.8 miles19
Woodland Village1.4 miles19
McCool1.7 miles19
Garyton1.9 miles19
Pleasant Valley2.0 miles19
Salt Creek Estates2.2 miles19
Crocker3.0 miles17

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 PortageAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q666957The 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 449815. 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.