by Curtis Vosti (Author)
The resilient city of Hammond is the place of Flick's triple dog dare, where John Dillinger never robbed a bank because of busy railroad crossings, and where an original National Football League team started in 1920. This city of 78,000 extends down from Lake Michigan in the shadow of neighboring Chicago along the state line. Hammond began in the late 19th century as a railroad town, industrial center, and commercial crossroads and remains famous through humorist Jean Shepherd's tales of Ralphie's quest for a BB gun in A Christmas Story. It has also been home to the secret behind Dairy Queen, groundbreaking CBS sportscaster Irv Cross, the Doublemint Twins, and, most deliciously, Phil Smidt's frog legs. Having shaken off the Rust Belt moniker in the 21st century, the Idaho-shaped city rests on storied foundations such as the First Baptist Church, the Ophelia Steen Center, the Hammond Public Library, a Purdue campus, and those darn railroads that still whistle through the Calumet Region nights.