| Calumet City
is a city in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The
population was 39,072 at the 2000 census. The ZIP code
is 60409. Calumet City (commonly referred to locally
as "Cal City") was founded in 1892 when the
villages of Schrumville and Sobieski Park merged under
the name of West Hammond, since it lies on the west
side of the Illinois-Indiana border from Hammond, Indiana.
In 1924, West Hammond officially changed its name to
Calumet City. In addition to being bordered to the east
by Hammond, it is also bordered by Burnham and Chicago
to the north, Lansing to the south, and South Holland
and Dolton to the west.
When the United States entered
the Great War in 1917, patriotic fervor led to many
young men enlisting in the armed forces, and nowhere
was that patriotism greater than in West Hammond, which
saw a larger percentage of its population, per capita,
enlist than any other community in the nation. Even
many members of the town's sizable German population
signed up for the military to fight the Central Powers.
A bronze plaque bearing the names of every citizen who
served in the war was dedicated at West Hammond's Memorial
Park in 1922.
However, with the onset of Prohibition
in 1919, West Hammond/Calumet City quickly became known
for something other than its patriotism.
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