Wolf Lake (Indiana–Illinois)

William W. Powers State Recreation Area is an Illinois state park administered by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources on 580 acres (230 ha) in the Hegewisch community area of the City of Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The area includes 419 acres (170 ha) of water in Wolf Lake that provides about 6 miles (10 km) of shoreline to fishermen. The park hosts about half a million visitors annually. The park contains numerous species, and is one of the most important biological sites in the Chicago region.

Wolf Lake Speedway was a racing venue located in Hammond, Indiana. The speedway opened on July 16, 1933, and operated until 1936. The track was described as "the World’s Most Unique Automobile Race Course."Wolf Lake Speedway contained two tracks. One track was a one-mile (1.6 km) sand track that was completely surrounded by Wolf Lake. A portion of the lake was drained to allow for the track's construction. This track hosted auto racing, while speedboat racing was held in the lake in the vicinity of the track. The other was a 1⁄5-mile (0.32 km) dirt and oil surfaced midget track, constructed in 1935, located between Wolf Lake and Calumet Avenue. Midget car racing took place at this track, with the opening race on June 9, 1935, and races continuing until 1936.Among the drivers who raced at Wolf Lake Speedway were Emil Andres, Frank Brisko, Duke Nalon, Harold Shaw, Jimmy Snyder, and Tony Willman.In 1935, Wolf Lake Speedway hosted a series of weekly Amateur Athletic Union boxing matches.

In the Memorial Day massacre of 1937, the Chicago Police Department shot and killed ten unarmed demonstrators in Chicago, on May 30, 1937. The incident took place during the Little Steel strike in the United States.

Hegewisch (pronounced "heg-wish" by the locals) is one of the 77 community areas of Chicago, Illinois, located on the city's far south side. It is bordered by the neighborhoods of Riverdale and South Deering to the west, the East Side to the north, the village of Burnham to the south and the city of Hammond, Indiana to the east. The community area is named for Adolph Hegewisch, the president of U.S. Rolling Stock Company who hoped to establish "an ideal workingman's community" when he laid out the town along a rail line in 1883, six years before Chicago annexed the town.

Clark High School was a public secondary school located in Whiting, Indiana. Clark served students in grades 6–12 in the School City of Hammond. Following the 2020–2021 school year, the school closed due to the consolidation of Hammond schools.

George Washington High School is a public 4–year high school located in the East Side neighborhood on the far southeast side of Chicago, Illinois, United States. Washington is operated by the Chicago Public Schools district. Washington serves the students of nearby neighborhoods: Hegewisch, South Deering. The school is named for the first President of the United States, George Washington.

Powderhorn Lake, within Illinois but close to the state line, is a 48 acres (19 ha) lake that is part of the sand wetlands of the Indiana Dunes, most of which are located in the nearby state of Indiana. It is the centerpiece of the 192 acres (78 ha) Powderhorn Lake Forest Preserve, part of the Forest Preserve District of Cook County in Cook County, Illinois.Powderhorn Lake drains into the Grand Calumet River, which is historically part of the Lake Michigan watershed. Man-made engineering now moves the Grand Calumet River’s water into the Cal-Sag canal and valley system, which drains into the Des Plaines River and ultimately into the Illinois River.

Hegewisch is a commuter rail station in the city of Chicago, Illinois in the Hegewisch neighborhood, that serves the South Shore Line north to Millennium Station and east to the cities of Hammond, East Chicago, Gary, Michigan City, and South Bend, Indiana. The Hegewisch station has high-level platforms, as part of NICTD's continuing effort to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.Hegewisch is the South Shore Line's easternmost stop in Chicago and the last one in Illinois outbound, and offers pay parking. It is the only Illinois station on the South Shore Line not shared with the Metra Electric Line. There is a unique arrangement at the station as far as fares are concerned: although this station is a South Shore Line stop and the tracks are owned by NICTD, the station and the parking lots are actually owned by Metra and thus subject to Metra's fares, because the station is within the state of Illinois. Thus, when the South Shore Line adjusts its fares, the fares for Hegewisch do not change, but if Metra adjusts its fares, the fares at Hegewisch are adjusted accordingly. Having broken ground in July 1991, current station facility was officially opened June 2, 1992. The station has a 3,000 square foot building, and cost Metra $1.7 million to construct. Soon after the current station building opened, the former station facility (located approximately 1,500 feet west of the current one) was demolished.The station is just west of an at-grade junction with a former Pennsylvania Railroad branch line (ex-South Chicago & Southern). The line began at the main line near the Illinois–Indiana state line and continued to a connection with the line to Logansport, Indiana. As of 2011, the tracks only exist to the former New York Central Railroad (ex-Michigan Central) line. The Chicago and Western Indiana Railroad main line (carrying trains of the Erie, Monon, Chicago and Eastern Illinois, and Wabash railroads) ran parallel to the South Shore. The Nickel Plate Railroad also had its main line to the west of the C&WI.A station typology adopted by the Chicago Plan Commission on October 16, 2014, assigns the Hegewisch station a typology of Mixed Residential/Industrial Neighborhood (MRIN). This typology is an area in which the Metra station serves both residential and industrial uses. Like most of the MRIN stations, it does not have access to CTA rail.

Robertsdale is a neighborhood in northernmost Hammond, Indiana, north of 129th Street and south of Lake Michigan. It is bounded to the south by Pulaski Park, to the west by the Chicago neighborhood of East Side, to the north by Lake Michigan, and to the east by the cities of Whiting and East Chicago. The neighborhood's boundaries correspond to Hammond's Planning District I. The neighborhood is traversed by the Indiana Toll Road, which has an exit into the neighborhood at the Indianapolis Boulevard immediately east of the state line. Amtrak passenger trains pass through Hammond/Whiting station in the neighborhood. The Whiting post office (46394) serves not only the city of Whiting but also this adjacent neighborhood in Hammond. Robertsdale and Whiting are "inextricably linked", sharing for example a single chamber of commerce. In the early 20th century, Whiting and Robertsdale shared a common ethnic composition: nearly 90% Slavic and 50% Slovak. The economies of both Whiting and Robertsdale have historically been dominated by the Whiting Refinery, originally built by Standard Oil and now operated by British Petroleum. Robertsdale's geography is dominated by bodies of water: Wolf Lake and George Lake, largely surrounded by parkland, take up much of the neighborhood's southern half. The remainder of the neighborhood is divided between industrial uses north of Wolf Lake and residential uses to the east of Wolf Lake. Commercial corridors run along the Calumet Avenue and Indianapolis Boulevard arteries. Local attractions include the Horseshoe Hammond casino, on the Lake Michigan shore. The portion of the neighborhood near the northern tip of Wolf Lake corresponds to the former town of Roby. The name "Roby" continued long after the town was absorbed into Hammond, and the area was known in the early 20th century as a criminal haven. The Roby Speedway, a popular automotive racetrack, operated in the area from 1920 to 1936.

The Pierogi Fest is an annual festival in Whiting, Indiana, United States, organized by the Whiting–Robertsdale Chamber of Commerce (WRCoC). It gets its name from the pierogi, a Polish dumpling. It draws more than 250,000 visitors each year.The festival takes place on the last weekend of July, on 119th Street in downtown Whiting. The street is only open to foot traffic during the festival. There are food booths set up along the streets serving pierogi, kielbasa and sauerkraut. There are also live music performances, and carnival rides. Other events include a Polka Parade, Pierogi Toss and eating competitions, and the Mr. Pierogi Songfest, which features food and fest-related parodies of popular songs. It features locally famous characters to bring goodwill, such as Mr. Pierogi, the Buscias, Miss Paczki, Halupki Guy, Polkahontas, and the Pieroguettes. Pierogi Fest has been featured by Oprah, Yahoo Travel, and more. In 2017 the festival's organizers filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in federal court against the organizers of the Edwardsville, Pennsylvania, Pierogi Festival, asking them to change their event's name. At first the Edwardsville Hometown Committee (EHC), who characterized the WRCoC's requested licensing fee as "extortionate", filed a counterclaim challenging the trademark and seeking damages against the WRCoC for enforcing an invalid trademark. By the beginning of June 2018, when the Edwardsville event is held, however, the two sides had reached a settlement in which the EHC recognized the trademark in return for permission to hold its own.2020 saw the festival get scrapped caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hammond–Whiting station is an Amtrak intercity train station in Hammond, Indiana. The station is along the former Pennsylvania Railroad Fort Wayne Line, now owned by Norfolk Southern Railway. North of the station lies the former Baltimore and Ohio (now CSX) and Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad (now Canadian National) tracks. The station building and parking lot lies on the former New York Central Railroad mainline. Hammond–Whiting opened on September 11, 1982. Until the early 2000s, it was served by all Amtrak service that ran east from Chicago; today, it is only served by two daily Wolverine round trips.

Whiting Memorial Community House, also known as Whiting Community Center, is a historic community center located at Whiting, Lake County, Indiana. It was built in 1923, and is a two-story, steel frame building faced in rough red brick and in an eclectic style. It has a hipped red tile roof, scattered gables and arches, and concrete bracket and medallion detailing. The building houses an auditorium, meeting rooms, an indoor track, gyms, lockers, a bowling alley, and swimming pool. It was built by the Standard Oil Company for the city of Whiting.: 2–3 It was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.