| The Calumet Region is the name given to the geographic areas drained by the and the of northwestern Indiana in the United States. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, which eventually reaches the Atlantic Ocean. This region includes the northern parts of Lake and Porter counties in Indiana, as well as the easternmost counties of northern Illinois. Since much of this region is on the south shore of Lake Michigan, it is sometimes referred to as the "South Shore". Because it was initially cut off from the rest of the state due to natural geographic barriers like the Kankakee Marsh to the south, the Calumet Region was the last-settled portion of Indiana. It is a sub-region of the greater Northwest Indiana region and the even larger Great Lakes region. | |
| The Calumet Region includes the Indiana cities of Gary, East Chicago, Hammond, Hobart, Whiting, Crown Point, and Valparaiso. | |
| The Calumet Region includes land from the following townships in Porter County: Portage, Union, Westchester, Liberty, Center, Pine, Jackson, Washington. It includes land located within the following townships of Lake County: North, St. John, Calumet, Hobart, and Ross. | |
| The name Calumet is said to come from French interpretations of either the Delaware or Potawatomi names for the rivers in question, or is a corruption of the Old French term Chalemel, which means "reed". The word appears on early maps as Cal-La-Mick, Kil-La-Mick, Calumic, etc. | |
| The first known print reference to refer to this area as a distinct geographical region is the 1755 map created by John Mitchell. In this map, however, he referred to the geographic region as "Quadoche", a name that the Iroquois had given to the Huron | |