WHITING (589.7 alt., 5,137 pop.), for many years a predominantly German settlement clustered around a railway crossing (now the Calumet Terminal), has been called successively Whiting's Crossing, Whiting's Station, Whiting's, and finally, Whiting.
It was a one-industry town until the Carbide and Carbon Chemicals Corporation became an across-the-street neighbor of Standard Oil in 1934. Despite the fact that about 90 per cent of Whiting's population is of foreign-born parentage, the town is like any other industrial city in appearance. Its geographical compactness and the unity conferred by the presence of only one large industry have done much to foster civic spirit. The former, mainly Slavic and Polish, had been adopt American ways. Whiting's residential streets are clean and well paved, and the city maintains a lake-front park of 22 acres, fully equipped with modern recreational facilities.
The BP Oil Company plant at the eastern edge of Whiting is one of the most striking sights in this region, with switch engines, trains of tank cars, row upon row of glistening storage tanks, labyrinths of pipe of all sizes and, breaking the skyline, hundreds of stacks of varying heights. At night, vaguely outlined by lights, it becomes a thing of beauty. As might be expected in a city largely made up of persons of musicloving nationalities, music is an integral part of community life.
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