Aetna (Gary, Indiana)

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Aetna is located on Gary's far east side along the Dunes Highway. Aetna was founded in 1881 as a remote town supporting a munitions manufactury, the Aetna Powder Company. It consisted of around 25 buildings scattered over 240 acres of undeveloped land. Aetna was purposefully isolated because of the dangers of the munitions plant, which had fatal explosions in 1912, 1914, and 1917. During World War I the plant expanded to employ 1000 workers, but after the war the plant shut down and Aetna became a ghost town with less than a hundred residents. What remained of Aetna was annexed by Gary in 1928. Nothing remains of the original town. One of the older parts of current Aetna was developed in the 1930s and is home to an impressive collection of art deco architecture. The rest of the community was built through out the 1950s after the Korean War in a series of phases. The eastern edge of Aetna is marked by wilderness and borders Miller Beach and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.