Welcome back to NWI Explored, your one-stop guide to everything worth exploring in Northwest Indiana! Since we last saw each other on Thursday, so much has happened! We all celebrated Halloween in a variety of ways, got to witness one of the more exciting World Series’ in some time, and lamented the loss of our favorite NFL teams as well. But, more importantly than all of that, we welcomed over 100 new readers to the NWI Explored club! That is insane! We are so grateful that our little pet project has garnered so much attention so quickly, so thank you so much to all of the people who have signed up for NWI Explored so far.

Over on our Instagram, we’ve started to post content centered around NWI life and it’s been a hit so far! At the time of writing, we just crossed 200 followers! Thank you again to anyone and everyone who’s joined our club so far. Here’s to even more success as we’re getting started. Now, onto the newsletter!

🧭 On Today’s issue of NWI Explored: 🧭

Here’s the Weather for November 3rd, 2025

We’re all tuckered out from the one-two punch of Halloween and Daylight Savings Time, but there is so much going on in Northwest Indiana on any given day! Let us know what you’re looking forward to this week so every NWI Explorer can find out for themselves! Drop a comment down below, respond to this email (if you’re reading us in your inbox), or leave a comment on our Instagram. We love hearing from our loyal readers, especially as we’re just getting started!

Every Monday, We give you the best happenings over the weekend and what you can look forward to exploring in the first half of the week.

There are few things as exciting as the glow of the Friday night lights, and the Halloween night games sure lived up to the hype. 12 games were played on Friday in the sectional semifinal round and there were some absolute barn burners. Here’s the scores for each of the games played this past weekend.

We all know US41 (Indianapolis Boulevard) as one of the main thoroughfares of the Lake County portion of NWI. We also all know how unbelievably congested it can get during peak traffic hours. Now, amidst increased congestion and a lack of space to further develop US41 with retail space, developers have turned their sights onto US231. US231, which intersects with US41 just on the border of St. John and Cedar Lake, has seen a whole heap of development in recent years: and it’s only just begun. Chief among these developments is Shops at the Gates, a retail space currently seeking retailers to bring restaurants, cafes, and boutiques to near the Gates at St. John development.

Over 200 townhomes are in progress or built near this development, with already built single unit housing also filling out this potentially busy area. Further down on 231 and Parrish, there are plans to build a 36-acre commercial and residential space that will house hundreds of units of housing and ample space for shops and restaurants. Developers are coining this potential development as “the new downtown of St. John.” Tons to consider with this massive expansion of developments in such an already congested area. One has to hope that with all of these new projects that it doesn’t just amount to more fast food joints and car washes.

There’s a lot of uncertainty in general nowadays, but with cuts to SNAP benefits during the ongoing government shutdown, yet another worrisome thing is added to NWI’ers plates. Below you can find a brief list of places to seek out if you or a loved one are experiencing difficulties due to loss of benefits or any food insecurities.

Take a look back at the Northwest Indiana of the past! On occasion, NWI Explored will dig through the archives to find what people were talking about on this day decades before. We’ll also use this segment as a way to look at how NWI looked in decades past. Think of this section as a catch-all for any historical information we think you all will find interesting!

Let us know what kind of historical posts YOU want to see from NWI Explored.

On November 4th, 1892, inventor and Indianapolis resident Richard Gatling filed a patent for a new weapon: soon to be called the “Gatling Gun”. The crank-operated, rapidly-firing weapon was the early progenitor to what we know know as a machine gun. Gatling’s invention would come to define Civil War era battles and the Mexican-American war. This fixture of 20th century warfare is just one of the many contributions Hoosiers have made to a variety of industries and disciplines!

Every Monday, We give a short roundup of what’s happening around NWI in between our posting days. Let us know what kinds of events YOU want to see more of in these roundups!

Come back on Thursday for the best of the events happening over the weekend! And let us know what we’ve missed down in the comments.