La Crosse, IN

La Crosse is a LaPorte County town whose name comes from the French word for a crossing. The name fits the place: five railroad lines once met here, including the Monon, Chicago and Indiana Coal, Chicago and West Michigan, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Chicago and St. Louis, and Chicago, Cincinnati and Louisville railroads. The town sits in the open farm country between La Porte and Michigan City, inside the Michigan City–La Porte metropolitan area. A post office opened in 1921, after the rail junction had already given the town its main reason for being.

ATTRSteve Shook from Moscow, Idaho, USA / CC BY 2.0

The rail network has thinned, but La Crosse still has a working railroad connection. Since 2004, the Chesapeake and Indiana Railroad has kept its headquarters in town and operates portions of former C&O and Pere Marquette trackage, moving grain from rural elevators to larger railroad systems. Tri-Township Consolidated School Corporation serves local students, and the La Crosse Public Library remains one of the town's everyday institutions. The 2020 census counted 555 residents. La Crosse is a compact Indiana town with a name that tells the whole story: it grew where lines crossed, and it still measures its place in the region through the tracks running out in several directions.