Westchester Township

At the heart of the struggle to save the uniquely

beautiful Indiana sand dunes, Westchester Township

lies on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, 50 miles

southeast of Chicago. It extends from the Indiana Dunes

that line the shore and continues south, to the rolling hills

of the Valparaiso Moraine. The township is home to four

incorporated towns, the Burns Harbor Plant of Bethlehem

Steel, and two large expanses of public land–the Indiana

Dunes National Lakeshore and the Indiana Dunes State Park.

Westchester Township tells the story of the people who

settled the township and those who contributed to its growth

and transformation into a vigorous and diverse community.

The photographs date from the early 1850s through the early

1960s, focusing primarily on the period from the 1880s to

the 1940s. The majority of the images were drawn from the

files of the Chesterton Tribune, which has served Westchester

Township and the surrounding area since 1884. Additional

pictures were kindly loaned by a variety of local citizens

and institutions.