LaPorte City Map Poster

About LaPorte

La Porte was founded in 1832 by John and William Larwill, who named it after LaPorte County. The city was incorporated on December 15, 1858. It grew quickly because of its location at the intersection of two major roads: Michigan Road (now U.S. Route 12) and the Chicago Road (now State Route 2). In addition to being a busy thoroughfare for settlers heading westward into Indiana's interior, La Porte became an important center along the Lake Michigan shoreline as a shipping point for goods such as grain and lumber from inland areas that were transported downriver via Lake Michigan to markets in Chicago or Milwaukee; other products included bricks made from local clay deposits which were used to build many homes in northern Indiana cities like South Bend and Elkhart; coal mined near Valparaiso shipped through ports on Lake Michigan also contributed significantly to early growth of both those communities as well as La Porte itself during this period before railroads reached these areas later in the 19th century.