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Trail Creek, Indiana

11 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1953 and the latest in 1983. It stands in Michigan Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46360. It stands on East Branch Trail Creek. The Survey maps it on the Michigan City East quadrangle. 2,060 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 627 feet above sea level.

Trail Creek within LaPorte County

Population over time

2 figures

Trail Creek grew from 2,052 to 2,060 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
20102,052
20202,060+8 (+0%)

Topographic sheets covering this place

5 surveys from 11 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

34 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 34 fires within 5 miles of Trail Creek between 1992 and 2013, burning about 10 acres in total. 4 started naturally. 4 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/undetermined8
Debris and open burning4
Railroad operations and maintenance4
Arson/incendiarism4
Natural4
Equipment and vehicle use4
Recreation and ceremony2
Power generation/transmission/distribution2
Other causes1
Fireworks1

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
30 September 2011Power generation/transmission/distributionunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreCENTRAL POLE
28 September 2008Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreW. BALDY
17 September 1993Arson/incendiarismunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreVALLEY
16 September 1995Railroad operations and maintenanceunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreHARVEST
21 August 1997Naturalunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreTREE 2
4 July 2006Missing data/not specified/undeterminedunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreCENTRAL
28 July 2009Naturalunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshorePOWER POLE 249/354
19 July 2007Naturalunder an acreIndiana Dunes National LakeshoreCENTRAL AVE

Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:

Every fire recorded in LaPorte County

Mines and quarries near this place

3 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 3 workings within 5 miles of Trail Creek: 3 producers. All of them still produce. What was taken out: Stone, Silica, 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
Michigan City Eng.StoneProducer
Michigan City PlantSilicaProducer
Sheridan Ave PitSand and Gravel, ConstructionProducer

Storms near this place

15 since 2007

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Trail Creek in 15 storm reports between 2007 and 2025: 11 thunderstorm wind, 4 hail. The reports record 1 injury. 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
July 2018Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek1 hurtLocal media reported a tree limb fell onto a vehicle at the intersection of Greenwood and Woodland Ave in Michigan City. The impact caused a fire, with a 25 year old female driver having to be extricated. She was reported in critical condition at the time with no further details available on her condition.
May 2024HailTrail Creek$30,000Hail damage to vehicles in downtown Michigan City. Public reports hail of 2 to 3 inches in diameter.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek$25,000Report from the 400 block of Laurel Drive has trees on top of houses.
August 2022Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek$20,000The emergency manager reported that multiple trees and power lines were down within the city.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek$20,000Several trees were blown down in and around Michigan City.
May 2024HailTrail Creek$15,000no account filed
June 2008Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek$10,000Power lines were reported down in the Michigan City area.
March 2025Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek$5,000Photos show several large trees down in Michigan City.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek-Trained spotters reported tree limbs were blown down.
May 2025Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek-A trained spotter reported several trees down, one onto a mobile home. No information was provided on possible injuries.
August 2021Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek-Several reports of trees and power lines down.
August 2008Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek-Numerous trees, tree limbs and power lines were reported down in and around the Michigan City area.
August 2007Thunderstorm WindTrail Creek-Numerous trees and power lines down in and around Michigan City. A few reports of trees onto vehicles were received but no damage estimates were available.
August 2011HailTrail Creek-no account filed
August 2007HailTrail Creek-no account filed

Every storm recorded in LaPorte 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
Orchard Highlands1.6 miles11
Pottawattamie Park1.7 miles11
Michigan City2.0 miles15
Waterford2.0 miles11
Davis2.1 miles11
Long Beach2.8 miles11
Ambler3.5 miles11
Merrick3.6 miles11

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 Trail CreekAn encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied.
Wikidata item Q592843The 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 444853. 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.