Isolated from the rest of Chicago by the industrial Lake Calumet region, and just a stone's throw from the Indiana Border, Hegewisch is like an independent village inside Chicago's city limits. Officials once eyed its territory as a site for a new airport, but the community rallied to prevent it an in so doing reaffirmed its identity. Today its tightly-knit community and well-kept streets suggest an idea of what many Chicago neighborhoods and suburbs aspire to be: a place both with its own distinct identity, apart and with a unique spirit, but also defined in relation to its environment and the larger metropolitan area.
