The whole north west corner of Indiana (Gary, Hammond, East Chicago, and Whiting) has never been pleasant since the industrial revolution -- steel mills, refineries(?), power plants, etc. Nobody with money lived or lives there. But it was a railfan haven (still is). You could burn through the only 36 exposure roll you could afford in a couple of hours. But we railfans never felt unsafe there in the 1960s and 1970s.