Mark Bouman News Today

"Calumet Voices, National Stories" has put the Region front and center in a museum that draws up to 2 million visitors a year to its permanent exhibits, including tourists from

The Calumet Region is bookended with the Indiana Dunes National Park to the east and the Pullman National Historic Park to the west, which advocates say would would make it

The years-long push to create a Calumet Heritage Area that would raise the Regions profile nationally is gaining momentum.

Chicago’s South Side and northwest Indiana are part of one distinct area — the Calumet region. “Calumet Voices, National Stories” spotlights the region, its culture and heritage.

A new exhibit at Chicago's Field Museum showcases thousands of years of stories from the Calumet region in the south suburbs and northwest Indiana.

The Field Museum is now displaying "Calumet Voices, National Stories." Its the culmination of a traveling exhibit that was curated with more than 15 museums and libraries.

In Pembroke, the well-intended efforts of mostly white nature conservationists overlook one thing: The township’s Black farming community has never fully supported them. Now, a generations-old way of life is threatened by the push for conservation.

Pat Nabong / Sun-Times A few years ago, when Mark Hodge argued that bringing an immigration detention center to Hopkins Park, the Black, rural Kankakee County community he serves as mayor, would be good for the economy, people who live there said: No, thanks. Now, Hodge is making a new development push for his town and the surrounding, historic farming community of Pembroke Township south of Chicago. He’s backing a proposal for a natural gas pipeline built by the utility Nicor that would run...