﻿Edmondson : Juvenile Delinquency and Adult Crime 11 



Indiana are especially favorable to great manufacturing cor- 

 porations. 



The United States Steel Corporation acquired a strip of land 

 in this location 8 miles in length and averaging 2 miles in width 

 fronting Lake Michigan. This site is in a region of great geo- 

 logical and botanical interest. Near the lake shore bare shifting 

 ridges of drifting sand bury everything in their path, the surface 

 as it changes with the winds showing the wave formation of the 

 water in the bordering lake. Back a mile or so from the lake 

 these ridges of sand 20 to 40 feet high are sparsely covered with 

 scrub oak, and between them are ponds or marshes famed for 

 water lilies and water fowl. Growing on the ridges and in the 

 sags between them are many varieties of wild flowers from the 

 gaudy flame color of the "prairie fire" to the delicate colors of 

 the wild orchids. Thru this region the sluggish Grand Calumet 

 river flows to South Chicago where it empties into the lake. 

 The land was valueless for agricultural purposes — land which 

 now 6 at what is the intersection of Broadway and Fifth avenue 

 is valued at $1,000 a front foot. In 1906 there was much work 

 preliminary to the establishment of an industrial city: a river 

 must be moved, gullies must be filled in, a harbor or shelter must 

 be built so ore boats could get nearer the shore than a half-mile, 

 and much of the plant must be built on made land. 



The United States Steel Corporation needed thousands of 

 men to build and operate its mills: the families of these men 

 needed houses, furniture, food, clothes, schools, churches, and 

 other necessities. The Steel Company was deeply interested in 

 getting a town built and populated rapidly. Necessity drove 

 the United States Steel Corporation to build not only the plants 

 but also the city of Gary. For these tasks it organized two 

 subsidiary companies: the Indiana Steel Company to build the 

 plant, and the Gary Land Company to build the town, both 

 plant and town to be under the same municipal jurisdiction. 



As the primary reason for the existence of Gary at ail is its 

 industries, a brief consideration must be given, to them in order 

 to understand the population. These industries consist of the 

 , Indiana Steel Company subsidiary to the United States Steel 

 Corporation, and a group of other plants and companies either 

 subsidiary or independent, many of them using the steei manu- 

 factured by the Indiana Steel Company. The map on page 12 

 shows that all but two of the plants are located in the narrow 



H916. 



