There are a lot of folks out there who know exactly where Gary, Indiana is – even if they’ve never set foot in Indiana. Gary’s reputation as being a pretty… uh… rough around the edges kind of place has preceded it for decades now, but it wasn’t always like this. In fact, once upon a time – a long time ago, albeit – Gary was a place of bustling industry and growing community. But what about its name? “Gary” is such an innocuous title for a place that was once known as the literal “murder capital of the world”, so where did it come from? How did Gary, Indiana get its name? Sure, this small town in Indiana is famous for a couple of things – namely high crime rates and plentiful urban exploration – but let’s dig deeper. Let’s explore.

Many towns and cities have a cool start or origin story, stemming from someone's hopes and dreams, or maybe from some quirk of the land or location.
Jennifer Brandel/Flickr
Gary, Indiana, isn't really named after any of those things, though one could make an argument for the town being a labor of love from the beginning instead of a love letter to the steel industry. But formed by the steel industry it ultimately was, and at first, things went splendidly.
Where nowadays you'll encounter crumbling homes and businesses, many of which with structures that are about to collapse, there once were families. Children. Schools.
carol mitchell/Flickr
Thousands of memories were made here once or twice upon a time, and legend has it that if you listen hard enough you can still hear kids playing in the wind.
...though, of course, that could just be children you're hearing.
slowdevil/Flickr
Folks do still live here, after all, and they give the whole place a sense of community that lacks in some other areas. Lots of the folks born and raised here wouldn't leave if they were paid to - home is home, after all.

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But why call it "Gary"? Why name it something so seemingly vanilla and benign? A person's name for a town - although kind of cute - almost always comes with a real-life human being attached to it somehow.
David Wilson/Flickr
The answer lies in the fact that Gary was established not by a group of well-meaning settlers but by industrious steel industry as a place to plant their home... well, plant, which would be called Gary Works.
"Gary", in this case, was a nod to a Mr. Elbert Henry Gary, a local lawyer who also served as the founding chairman for the United States Steel Corporation.
Paul Sableman/Flickr
For the first three decades of its existence, this little city named Gary exploded in productivity and employment. Jobs growth was rapid and intense. Everything was going wonderfully... until it wasn't.
Elbert Gary died in 1927, and it wasn't terribly long after that that the steel industry in Indiana began to wane.
David Wilson/Flickr
Where once Gary was one of the largest, fastest-growing cities in Indiana, it was now struggling - and its namesake had long departed this mortal coil by then, his moniker not acting like a good luck charm for the place but more like a mere title - the title of something that used to be of substance, but was now rapidly receding into the annals of history.

So, there – if you’re ever in a trivia game and they want to know how Gary, Indiana got its name, you’ll be able to tell them in a heartbeat. You can thank me later.

Planning on visiting Gary and doing a little urbex (urban exploration)? You’ll want to make sure to get a permit from the city first. The permit is $50 and is well worth being able to explore safely while still giving back to the city. If you need a place to stay while you’re here, check out the offerings from our friends at VRBO. You never know what you’ll find!

Are you one of the folks with a weird soft spot for this little town named after a long-gone head honcho in the steel industry? Me too. Tell me why you are in the comments.

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