If you’ve ever heard someone mention Gary, Indiana, chances are it wasn’t in a positive light. The city gets dragged in onto the internet, warned about in travel subreddits, and generally treated like a place you should avoid at all costs. But Gary wasn’t always this way. At one point, it used to be a thriving industrial hub that people actually wanted to move to. So what happened to the once great and now infamous American city?
Gary, Indiana Was An Iconic Steel Town
Gary was founded in 1906 by the U.S. Steel Corporation on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. The “Magic City” attracted thousands of European immigrants looking for work at the massive Gary Works steel mill. By 1960, the city hit its peak with 178,415 residents. Think about that number. That’s more than the population of Mackinac Island, Michigan, one of the best weekend getaways in all of America!
But like The Beatles in the ‘60s, it all fell apart. Foreign steel producers invested in efficient technology while American mills stuck with outdated equipment. The Gary Works, which employed over 30,000 workers in the early 1970s, slashed its workforce to just 6,000 by 1990. As jobs vanished, so did people. The 2020 census found only 69,093 residents remaining, a staggering 61% drop from the city’s peak. Today, about 13,000 properties stand abandoned.
The Crime Statistics That Built Gary’s Nefarious Reputation
Gary’s reputation for danger isn’t just perception. In 1993, the city earned the title of “murder capital of the United States” with 110 murders in a population of just over 100,000.
The abandoned buildings became more than eyesores. In 2014, serial killer Darren Vann used several vacant Gary homes as dumping grounds for his victims’ bodies, highlighting the dangerous reality of thousands of unsecured structures scattered throughout the city.
Despite the grim statistics, Gary hasn’t given up. The city has demolished hundreds of dangerous buildings through federal grants, and a $400 million Hard Rock Casino opened in 2021. Gary’s bad reputation was earned through decades of economic devastation, but the city that gave us the Jackson 5 is still home to nearly 70,000 people working to reclaim its future. Honestly, in about a decade or two, Gary’s negative reputation will completely dissipate. Right now, there’s tons of on-the-ground work happening to make Gary a mecca for newcomers. Just like Detroit, Gary won’t be giving up, and we shouldn’t ignore their hard work.
