Use of the Spring Today
Today the property surrounding the spring is managed by the Little Calumet River Basin Development Commission (LCRBDC), a state agency that provides flood protection along the Little Calumet River from Gary to the Illinois state line. It is tested quarterly by the Commission and is still accessed by the public for water collection.
Members of the Gary Food Council, a non-profit that addresses food security issues in Gary, and others have spearheaded recent cleanups at the spring and have pressed for improvements to the site. In 2021, the LCRBDC allocated funds for the Spring Park Project. The park will make the spring site safer to access and add landscaping using native plantings. Construction on the park is slated for spring 2022.
To learn more about efforts to improve the spring site, listen to these clips:
Arianne Campbell: "An opportunity for us to try and create this into a beautiful space"
Griffith resident Arianne Campbell describes the illegal dumping at the spring that inspired a 2016 community clean-up at the site. "...there's an area where we have a natural running spring," Campbell says, "and it had gone into horrible disrepair ... it was an opportunity for us to try and create this into a beautiful space."
Found at 10:28 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Kristen Huysken: "We learned about that in my geology class"
Kristin Huysken, Associate Professor of Geoscience at Indiana University Northwest, describes her class field trips to the Chase Street well. Her students visit significant geological formations in the area in order to "understand how geology affects them in their everyday lives and how they interact with their geologic environment."
Found at 03:10 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Andrea Ledbetter: Creative placemaking and urban farming
Andrea Ledbetter, co-founder of the Decay Devils, discusses the potential for urban farming around the Chase Street Spring. She says, "we're thinking about doing a lot of creative placemaking projects that deal with urban farming"; one such project being an apiary to bring more bees to the area and cultivate honey.
Found at 14:25 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
David Castellanos: Working in partnership to enhance the community
Little Calumet River Basin Development Commissioner David Castellanos discusses plans for the beautification and enhancement of the Chase Street Spring. He says, "So if we work together in partnership, I think we can really develop something that's going to really enhance this whole community, bring us all together."
Found at 12:49 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
David Castellanos: Making the spring more accessible
Commissioner David Castellanos discusses plans for improving the Chase Street spring, inspired by the Flowing Well Park in Carmel, Indiana. He aspires to make the area surrounding the artesian well more accessible to users.
Found at 03:50 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
Arianne Campbell: Connecting to Gary's history
Griffith resident Arianne Campbell explains how the dilapidation within her hometown of Gary makes it difficult for her to fully appreciate its history. "So much of [Gary] is completely unrecognizable from what it used to be or it's just outright gone," she says. "And I think that that feeling of not really having that connection to one's history because it's missing is part of it for me." For Campbell, the Chase Street spring serves as one tangible connection to Gary's past.
Found at 17:58 in the interview transcript | Listen to the complete interview
