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Read Dunes House is a historic home in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana. It was built in 1952, and is a one-story, Prairie School style dwelling. It measures 58 feet by 29 feet, and has a low-sloped gable roof. The house was built for Philo Benham Read (1882–1961) and his wife Irene Martin Read (1902–1981), who were active in dunes preservation. It was designed by their architect son Herbert P. Read.: 5 The house was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2011.

Tremont was a flag stop on the South Shore Line located at Tremont Road in Porter County, Indiana. The station was built by the Chicago, Lake Shore and South Bend Railway and opened circa 1908, serving its namesake town and later the Indiana Dunes. In 1979, the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission and the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) conducted a study for the improvement of the South Shore Rail Corridor. The study recommended the construction of new station at Indiana 49 and US 12, a location within 1 mile (1.6 km) of both the Tremont and Port Chester stops. The study also recommended closing Port Chester and Pines due to low ridership, but keeping the Tremont, Ogden Dunes, Midwest Steel, Bailly, Dune Acres, and Beverly Shores stations open. Land acquisition for the new station (Dune Park) occurred in October 1982.A new entrance to the Indiana Dunes for bikers and hikers was added at Tremont Road, half a block from the South Shore station, in 1982. The entrance officially opened on the July 4 weekend, coinciding with the expansion of South Shore service to the Tremont station. Two westbound trains were added during the morning rush, four westbound trains on weekends, and one late-night train was added on Saturdays.As progress continued on Dune Park, plans continued to evolve. By late 1984, NICTD had intended to convert Tremont into a weekend-only stop and have Dune Acres remain a flag stop once Dune Park opened. The following year NICTD changed course, deciding instead to close both Tremont and Dune Acres with the opening of the new Dune Park station. However, ridership increases at both stops after the study was taken caused the agency to consider waiting to close one or both stations until after overflow parking could be added at Dune Park. Ultimately, Tremont closed on June 2, 1986, with the opening of Dune Park. Dune Acres closed in 1994 once the additional parking lots at Dune Park were complete.

Dune Park is a station in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, located north of the municipalities of Chesterton and Porter. It is used by South Shore Line trains, and serves as the headquarters of the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD), the umbrella agency that operates the South Shore Line. It is located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and Indiana State Road 49.

Tremont, Indiana, is a ghost town formerly located in what is now the Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Park in Westchester Township in northern Porter County, Indiana. It was first established in 1833. It was located at the intersection of U.S. Highway 12 and County Road 100 East, near Indiana 49. The community is named for three massive sand dunes that are now contained within the State park. They are Mount Tom (200 feet (61 m) above the surrounding area), Mount Holden 170 feet (52 m), and Mount Green 160 feet (49 m).

Coffee Creek is a stream in Porter County, Indiana, in the United States. It is a tributary of East Arm Little Calumet River. According to tradition, a bag of coffee was lost in the stream, accounting for the name.

Enchanted Forest was a small amusement park operated in Porter, Indiana. The park operated from 1957 to 1991. Many rides were moved to Little Amerricka amusement park in Wisconsin after the park closed on August 2, 1991. The park became Splash Down Dunes Water Park in 1994. Splash Down Dunes itself closed down in 2009 after an ownership dispute; the original owner regained ownership in 2010 but the park remained closed. Splash Down Dunes was bought by Seven Peaks Water Park and it re-opened on May 27, 2013, as Seven Peaks Water Park Duneland.The location of the amusement park is at the intersection of U.S. Route 20 and Indiana State Road 49, north of Chesterton near the border of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. In June 2017, the park was closed by state officials due to dozens of people receiving chlorine chemical burns. Malfunctioning equipment was determined to be the root cause. At the time, Jo Penney, a spokeswoman for Seven Peaks, said, "the park will remain closed until all the deficiencies are rectified." In 2019 the water park was sold. The new owner has plans to demolish the water park, and build an apartment complex.

Westchester Township is one of twelve townships in Porter County, Indiana. It is included in the Calumet, Northwest Indiana, and Great Lakes regions. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Chicago. It stretches from the famous Indiana Dunes on its northern border, south to the Valparaiso Moraine, a ridge of rolling hills left by the last glacier to pass through the area. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,396.

Chesterton is a disused train station in Chesterton, Indiana. The current depot replaced a wooden structure built in 1852 for the Northern Indiana and Chicago Railroad, a predecessor road of the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway, that burned down in 1913. It was rebuilt in 1914 as a brick structure. By 1914, Cornelius Vanderbilt of the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad held a majority interest in the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway. The Southern Railways trackage provided an ideal extension of the New York Central from Buffalo to Chicago. On December 22, 1914, the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad merged with the Lake Shore and Michigan Southern Railway to form a new New York Central Railroad.The New York Central Railroad, built the new Chesterton Depot out of brick and to the west, across Fourth Street, they built a freight house that same year.In 1968, the New York Central merged with the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1976, the Penn Central's freight service was consolidated into Conrail and it ended passenger service altogether. Passenger service to Chesterton ended in 1959. The rail lines are currently operated by Norfolk Southern.

The Chesterton Commercial Historic District is a historic district in Chesterton, Indiana. Originally called Coffee Creek and located a little to the south of the current downtown, the name was changed some time after the post office was established in 1833 to Calumet, the river to the north. When the Lake Shore and Michigan Railroad came through the area in 1852, the town moved north to the current location and began to develop. The town's name was not changed to Chesterton until after the Civil War. There appears to have been confusion with Calumet, Illinois, further up the track.The town's location along the railroad helped industry to grow. Soon, there was a cooperage, sawmills, a washing machine factory, and an organ company. Among the better examples of the towns growth are the commercial building on the southwest corner of Broadway and Calumet Rd, and the old Chesterton Tribune Building.

Located in Chesterton, Indiana, the Chesterton Residential Historic District is located a block south of the business district, along Second Street from Indiana Ave. to Lincoln Ave. and on Indiana Ave. from Second to Third Streets. The area began with the Martin Young House construction about 1870. The Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana describes as one of the best Italianate structures remaining in northwest Indiana. Most of the structures date from the early twentieth century. St. Patrick's Catholic Church, built in 1876, and burned ca. 2000.The historic district was established in December 2009.

Indiana Dunes State Park is an Indiana State Park located in Porter County, Indiana, United States, 47 miles (75.6 km) east of Chicago. The park is bounded by Lake Michigan to the northwest and is surrounded by as well as within the authorized boundaries of Indiana Dunes National Park, a unit of the National Park Service; the NPS owns the water from the ordinary high water mark to 300 feet (91 m) offshore. The 1,530-acre (619.2 ha) Dunes Nature Preserve makes up the bulk of eastern part of the park, and includes most of the park's hiking trails and dune landscape. This was one of the first places Richard Lieber considered when establishing the Indiana State Park system. Like all Indiana state parks, there is a fee for entrance. Indiana Dunes State Park was established in 1925 and designated a National Natural Landmark in 1974.Preserving the Indiana Dunes has resulted from the efforts of many citizens and politicians. In 2018–2019, Indiana Dunes was the most-visited state park, with more than 1.3 million visitors.

City West was a village in Porter County, Indiana, US, located on the shore of Lake Michigan approximately 10 miles west of Michigan City, Indiana. It was situated near the mouth of Fort Creek, now known as Dunes Creek, which empties into Lake Michigan near the Indiana Dunes State Park swimming beach. It was located near the former site of Petit Fort.The town was established in 1836 by Jacob Bigelow, William Morse, Jacob Hobart and Leverett Bradley. By September or October 1839, the town had been completely abandoned, due to the financial panic of 1837, which caused the banks to demand repayment of loans, and the US Federal government not allocating promised money for a port on Lake Michigan near the mouth of Fort Creek. The village is notable for a visit from US Senator Daniel Webster on July 4, 1837. In a speech before the Whig members of City West, Webster wished the citizens good luck for the future for the "grand city on the lake", which led the overly excited Whigs of City West to think that they had appropriation for a grand port of Indiana. In 1840, there was a visit to the now abandoned village by a few people, including a 12-year-old T.H. Ball, who found only empty homes at the site of the village. The last word of the fate of City West was in 1854, when people nearby noticed the smell of burning wood and a glow in the sky in the direction of City West and Lake Michigan. Investigation later that month found the village to be in ruin from fire with only the wooden 650-foot pier jutting out into Lake Michigan surviving the destruction. The pier survived into the late 1870s before falling into disrepair and disappearing into the lake.As platted, the town covered 25 blocks, with rights of way for a railroad and a canal connecting the lake to the Little Calumet River; neither the railroad nor the canal were ever constructed. At its peak, the town was home to between sixteen and twenty households. There were no schools or formal churches. The town's businesses included a sawmill, which used water power from Fort Creek, and a large hotel. After standing vacant for several years, the hotel was moved to Chesterton in the early 1850s.Between the town and the lake stood a Potawatomi burial ground, and the town was frequently visited by Potawatomi trading parties on their way to Baillytown. Burials occurred at the Potawatomi cemetery as late as 1838.The old town site is now on Indiana Dunes State Park property with the only trace being a newly built park shelter named City West Shelter.