Long before Indiana became a state, long before the founding of Schererville, people called this place the “Crossroads.” The name was appropriate. Several Indian trails intersected in the area and these trails became westward routes for the wagons of settlers looking to make their fortune in new unclaimed lands. One of these settlers was Nicholas Scherer, who arrived in the U.S. from Germany in 1846. When he came to this place at the southern tip of Lake Michigan in 1866, he founded the community that bears his name.

Today, trails still cross in Schererville, but these are the modern trails of a motorized society, U.S. Highways 41 and 30. Nearby are newer trails, I-80/94 and I-65. These are all primary transcontinental routes and gave rise to Schererville’s slogan: “Crossroads of the Nation.”