DYER — From trails traveled by mastodons and Native American tribes 12,000 years ago, to today’s highways and passenger trains, modes of transportation have shaped the history of the Calumet Region, and will influence its future.
That message came through the experiences and opinions of those attending the third NWI Next community conversation Tuesday at Dyer Town Hall.
Sponsored by The Times Media Co. and the Dyer Historical Society in celebration of Indiana’s Bicentennial, the event drew multiple generations from throughout the area including Crown Point, Cedar Lake, Dyer, Hammond, Merrillville, Valparaiso, Mishawaka and Lansing, to focus on transportation.
Bruce Butgereit, of the Indiana Lincoln Highway Association, traveled from Grand Rapids, Michigan, to talk about how railroads influenced the formation of Northwest Indiana and about the genesis of Lincoln Highway.
One of the earliest transcontinental automobile highways, Lincoln Highway was “birthed” by Indiana entrepreneur Carl G. Fisher in 1912, he said.
The project was designed by 17 of the nation’s top engineers to connect Times Square in New York City to Lincoln Park in San Francisco, and stretched more than 3,300 miles.
In 1921, construction of Lincoln Highway called The Ideal Section was funded in a public/private partnership that included Lake County and U.S. Rubber Co, and runs from the Illinois/Indiana state line through Dyer, Butgereit said.
“It was truly that, the Ideal Section, because of its proximity of Chicago,” he told those gathered about why Dyer was chosen. “It was ‘an object lesson road,’ because it showed how to build roads.”
During the conversations coordinated by Danielle Slowick, of Valparaiso University’s Center for Civic Reflection, some attendees reflected on changes in transportation over the past 60 years or more.
The decline of buses, the cost of transportation and the effort to bring the South Shore passenger rail farther into Lake County garnered the most comments.
Heavy traffic on the highways could be alleviated by extending the South Shore commuter line, said Pat Hawrot, of Dyer, and the town’s clerk-treasurer.
“We’re working on getting the South Shore station here in Dyer. Having the South Shore here will be great,” she said.
Marybeth Yokovich, of Merrillville, said, "... it’s disappointing that the train is only going on the west side of Lake County,” adding that commuting to Chicago would be easier for young people.
“We need to get these kids some jobs,” she said.