Editing Valparaiso, Indiana (section)

==History==
The site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the [[Potawatomi]] people by the U.S. Government in October 1832. Chiqua's town or Chipuaw<ref>One of the earliest Authentic histories of Porter County, Indiana, From 1832 to 1876; Deborah H. Shults-Gay; ca 1917</ref> was located a mile east of the current Courthouse along the [[Sauk Trail]]. Chiqua's town existed from or before 1830 until after 1832.<ref>Atlas of Great Lakes Indian History; [[Helen Hornbeck Tanner]]; University of Oklahoma Press; Norman, Oklahoma, 1987; map 25</ref> The location is just north of the railroad crossing on State Route 2 and County Road 400 North.

Located on the ancient Native American trail from [[Rock Island, Illinois|Rock Island]] to [[Detroit]], the town had its first log cabin in 1834.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Valparaiso|url=http://www.ci.valparaiso.in.us/index.aspx?nid=283|publisher=Valparaiso, Indiana|access-date=25 April 2014|archive-date=14 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140714223722/http://www.ci.valparaiso.in.us/index.aspx?nid=283|url-status=dead}}</ref> Established in 1836 as ''Portersville'', county seat of Porter County, it was renamed to Valparaiso (meaning "Vale of Paradise" in [[Old Spanish]]) in 1837 after [[Valparaíso]], [[Chile]], near which the county's namesake [[David Porter (naval officer)|David Porter]] battled in the [[Battle of Valparaiso]] during the [[War of 1812]].<ref>{{cite book|first=Ronald L.|last=Baker|author2=Marvin Carmony |title=Indiana Place Names|publisher=Indiana University Press|location=Bloomington|year=1995|isbn=0-253-28340-X|page=170}}</ref> The city was once called the "City of Churches" due to the large number of churches located there at the end of the 19th century. Valparaiso Male and Female College, one of the earliest higher education institutions admitting both men and women in the country, was founded in Valparaiso in 1859, but closed its doors in 1871 before reopening in 1873 as the Northern Indiana Normal School and Business Institute. In the early 20th century, it became Valparaiso College, then [[Valparaiso University]]. It was initially affiliated with the Methodist Church but after 1925 with the Lutheran University Association (which has relationships both with the [[Lutheran Church Missouri Synod]], and with the [[Evangelical Lutheran Church in America]]) and expanded significantly after World War II.

From the 1890s until 1969, there were no African-American residents in Valparaiso. This has been attributed to Valparaiso being a [[sundown town]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Mitchell|first=David|date=June 30, 2003|title=A struggled balance of hope and fear|work=[[The Times of Northwest Indiana]]|url=https://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/a-struggled-balance-of-hope-and-fear/article_ad5fb23f-55de-5954-ae4c-73dc520d2198.html|access-date=July 12, 2021|quote=More than 30 years ago, Barbara Frazier-Cotton, a single, black mother raising her six children in Chicago's public housing projects, brought her family to Valparaiso where they became the first to breach the city's color barrier. The house butted against a thick wooded area at the end of a short, curved drive. Officials refused to hook up municipal water, even though they lived within city limits. The family relied on well water. Thinking back, Walt Reiner to this day says he wouldn't wish on an enemy what Frazier-Cotton went through that first year in Valparaiso. On occasion, Frazier-Cotton also wonders aloud why she didn't just pack up and leave. More moments than she'd like to remember forced her to question whether she made the right decision. The phone rang often in the middle of the night. "Go home," the voice on the other end would say. "You don't belong here." Strange cars rolled down the driveway late at night. "I was afraid to call the police," she says. "They said earlier they wouldn't come." One summer night, she awoke, sat up in bed and looked straight at a man staring at her through an open window. The windows remained closed for a long time after that. People gawked at her in stores or on the street. A stranger once handed her a business card that read, "Keep Valparaiso Clean" on one side and "KKK" on the other. Crosses were burned on her lawn." For the most part, the schools and churches stood strong and supportive. Some Valparaiso educators even took the opportunity to have Frazier-Cotton speak to their students, offering them exposure to an otherwise inaccessible perspective on cultural diversity. Many Valparaiso University students befriended the family, regardless of race. Others in the city also accepted Frazier-Cotton into the community. Still, her children's names would often be the first mentioned when something turned up missing or vandalized.}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Loewen|first=James W.|title=Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism|publisher=New Press|year=2005|isbn=0743294483|location=New York|pages=67, 199, 200, 413|quote="I identified a total of 231 Indiana towns as all-white. I was able to get information as to the racial policies of 95, and of those, I confirmed all 95 as sundown towns. In Indiana, I have yet to uncover any overwhelmingly white town that on-site research failed to confirm as a sundown town. Ninety-five out of 95 is an astounding proportion; statistical analysis shows that it is quite likely that 90 to 100% of all 231 were sundown towns. They ranged from tiny hamlets to cities in the 10,000-50,000 population range, including Huntington (former vice president Dan Quayle's hometown) and Valparaiso (home of Valparaiso University)."}}</ref> There was also substantial activity by the [[Ku Klux Klan]], which negotiated to purchase Valparaiso University in 1923.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Taylor|first=Stephen J.|date=2016-01-06|title=Ku Klux U: How the Klan Almost Bought a University|url=https://blog.newspapers.library.in.gov/ku-klux-u-how-the-klan-almost-bought-a-university/|access-date=2021-07-12|website=Hoosier State Chronicles: Indiana's Digital Newspaper Program|language=en-US}}</ref> The first African-American family to move to Valparaiso faced intimidation and eventually left the city when a visiting relative was murdered.<ref name=":0" /><ref>{{Cite news|last=Mitchell|first=David|date=June 30, 2003|title=A struggled balance of hope and fear &ndash; continued|work=[[The Times of Northwest Indiana]]|url=https://www.nwitimes.com/news/state-and-regional/a-struggled-balance-of-hope-and-fear----continued/article_1dff323a-f9f8-5c6c-a3b1-a6ebb7c9ccd4.html|access-date=July 12, 2021|quote=<When her stepson showed up at her front door, the previous winter's tragic events at the university were quickly becoming a distant memory. Horace Smith Jr. arrived unannounced at her Cedar Lane house in early August of 1980, looking for a little space and time to straighten some things out. [...] His decision to come to Valparaiso proved costly. In the early morning hours of Aug. 22, 1980, two brothers on their way to go squirrel hunting found Smith dying in a ditch along U.S. 30, just west of Ind. 51. "He was unable to talk and was gasping for air. They tried to get him to state what happened, but he was incoherent," said First Sgt. Glen Edmondson of the Indiana State Police, who reviewed the file years later. Trooper Richard Bonesteel arrived just before 4 a.m. Smith was dead. Because Smith was black, officers assumed he was from Lake County and notified Gary police first. The initial report said Smith was either pushed from a moving vehicle or struck by a car while walking along the side of the road. The Lake County Coroner's office ruled out suicide, but listed the cause of death as undetermined. The case remains unsolved, a dense file in the state police's Cold Case division. Many specifics about the case are restricted because it technically is still under investigation. And family members are still reluctant to rehash details. Smith's body had cuts and bruises, but the only bone fracture was to the lower, rear portion of his skull, indicating someone probably hit him in the back of the head. Smith had no other broken bones, making it difficult to imagine he was hit by a car. Edmondson, filtering through decades old documents, says there were indications race played a role. "I think there's some of those issues that go on in these arguments because some of the people it makes mention of are black and some are white," Edmondson says. Betty Ballard, Frazier-Cotton's long-time friend, says Frazier-Cotton came to her house shortly after Smith's death, frightened because she had received a phone call from someone who may have had a hand in her stepson's death. "They called her and told her they were going to kill her," Ballard says. "She called me and told me, 'Betty, we've got to leave. They're going to kill us all.'" The day after Frazier-Cotton identified her stepson for police, the Vidette-Messenger, the local newspaper, ran two related front page stories. A small item explained how police had identified Horace Smith, a relative of Valparaiso's first black family, as the youth found dead along U.S. 30 days earlier. The main story described a cross burning on the lawn outside of the newspaper office. Two Ku Klux Klan business cards at the base of the cross read, "Racial purity is America's security." "The Klan is watching you" stickers were pasted on a van and a car in the building's parking lot. Ultimately, Smith's death proved to be Frazier-Cotton's breaking point. It was time to leave.}}</ref> In recent years, the city's racial composition has diversified.

Valparaiso also has a long history of being a transportation hub for the region. In 1858, the [[Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne and Chicago Railroad]] reached Valparaiso, connecting the city directly to Chicago. By 1910, an interurban railway connected the city to [[Gary, Indiana]]. Today, while the city no longer has a passenger train station, it is still very much a part of the "Crossroads of America" due to its proximity to [[Interstate 65|I-65]], [[Interstate 80|I-80]], [[Interstate 90|I-90]], and [[Interstate 94|I-94]]. Additionally, the Canadian National railroad still runs freight on the tracks, including through the downtown area.

Until 1991, Valparaiso was the terminal of [[Amtrak]]'s ''[[Calumet (Amtrak)|Calumet]]'' [[commuter rail|commuter service]].