WHITING

city, Lake county, northwestern Indiana, U.S. It lies along Lake Michigan, in the Calumet industrial region, immediately southeast of Chicago. It originated in 1889, when the Standard Oil Company, unable to find a site in Chicago, constructed the world's largest complete oil refinery there. Whiting was the birthplace of the Standard Oil Company of Indiana and was for many years the capital of the oil empire. Though a highly industrialized city (with heavy emphasis on oil refining and chemicals), Whiting has remained small, its population declining from a peak of 10,880 in 1930. Calumet College of Saint Joseph (1951; Roman Catholic) is in Whiting. Inc. 1895. Pop. (1990) 5,155.