East Arm Little Calumet River
| East Arm Little Calumet River | |
| Little Calumet River East Branch | |
| river | |
 Looking west (downstream) towards the Heron Rookery from 600 East in Pines Township.
|
|
| Country | United States |
|---|---|
| State | Indiana |
| Region | Porter County, Indiana |
| Tributaries | |
| - left | Reynolds Creek, Sand Creek, Coffee Creek, Salt Creek |
| - right | Carver Ditch |
| Cities | Chesterton, Porter, Burns Harbor |
| Source | |
| - location | New Durham Township, LaPorte County, Indiana, United States |
| - elevation | 770 ft (235 m) |
| - coordinates | 41°36′15″N 086°51′25″W / 41.60417°N 86.85694°W |
| Mouth | Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway |
| - location | Burns Harbor, Porter County, Indiana |
| - elevation | 584 ft (178 m) |
| - coordinates | 41°36′48″N 087°10′31″W / 41.61333°N 87.17528°WCoordinates: 41°36′48″N 087°10′31″W / 41.61333°N 87.17528°W |
The East Arm Little Calumet River, also known as the Little Calumet River East Branch, is a 22.1-mile-long (35.6 km) portion of the Little Calumet River that begins just east of Holmesville, Indiana in New Durham Township in LaPorte County and flows west to Porter County and the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.
Although its origins are unclear, the Calumet name seems to reflect the nature of the river. It may have come from the Old French word chalemel, which has to do with reeds, or it might be a corruption of the Potawatomi word gekelemuk, which means "a low body of deep still water".
In 1822 Joseph Bailly (born Honore Gratien Joseph Bailly de Messein) established a homestead and fur trading business at the now historic Bailly Homestead, a part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, on the east bank of the Little Calumet River in Porter, Indiana. The Potawatomis brought the beaver pelts by canoe to Bailly in the spring of the year and then he shipped them to Mackinac, from whence they were traded to Montreal and then Europe. By 1830, the beavers were depleted and Bailly opened a tavern on the Fort Dearborn to Detroit Road (present day U.S. Hwy. 12). The fur trading era in northwestern Indiana had come to an end.
Until 1926 the river continued west to Illinois as the Little Calumet River proper, but excavation of the Burns Waterway caused the flow from the eastern arm of the Little Calumet River to be diverted directly into Lake Michigan at Burns Harbor, Indiana.
...
Wikipedia