Established in 1836 as the county seat of Porter County, Portersville Indiana, as it was originally known, was renamed Valparaiso in 1837 (“Valley of Paradise” in Spanish) after the world famous Chilean seaport and Chile’s third largest metropolis.  The little known reason for this name change is that David Porter, the Indiana county’s namesake, actually fought in the Battle of Valparaiso in South America during the War of 1812.

The roughly 15 square mile township of 32,000 was also once called the “City of Churches” because of the large density of churches that dotted its landscape at the end of the 1800’s.

Located on the ancient Indian trail from Rock Island to Detroit, the site of present-day Valparaiso was included in the purchase of land from the Potawatomi Indians by the U.S. Government in October 1832. Valparaiso has actually long history of being a transportation hub for the region going into the 20th century when in 1910, an interurban railway connected the city to Gary Indiana. 

Today, while the city no longer has a passenger train station, it is still very much a part of the “Crossroads of America” and rich historical heritage of the state.

Porter County and Valparaiso are less known by historians for the challenging water issues that the local residents are ALL too familiar with.  The particular hydrological characteristics of North West Indiana, including hard water, iron water and sulfur, as well as nitrates from agricultural run off and chlorine from municipal water treatment have daunted homeowners since the first settlers started pumping well water nearly 200 years ago.

Miracle | EcoWater, one of the oldest water filtration and water treatment companies in Indiana specializing in HARD WATER REFINERS, WELL WATER SOFTENERS/CONDITIONERS as a well as a host of IRON WATER, SULPHUR, NITRATE, de-chlorination issues and Reverse Osmosis solutions, can claim its origins going back more than half a century, installing only the best-in-class water filtration systems to deal with the challenging water issues native to the area throughout Valparaiso, Chesterton, Portage and all of Porter County.

Downtown Valparaiso.  Lincoln Way.
Photo credit: Dennisyerger84