Portage

Town in Porter County, northwestern Indiana, USA, on Lake Michigan, adjacent to Gary; population (1990) 29,100. On the eastern edge of the highly industrialized Calumet area, it is a shipping centre with Burns International Harbor, a port accommodating ocean-going vessels. Steel and other products are manufactured, and sea angling also contributes to the economy.

Portage

Town in Kalamazoo County, southwestern Michigan, USA, 10 km/6 mi south of Kalamazoo; population (1990) 41,000. It has been a centre for celery farming for around 200 years. Industries include the manufacture of mobile homes, pharmaceuticals, and paper products. The surrounding area is dotted with small lakes.

Portage

Seat of Columbia County, southern-central Wisconsin, USA, on the Wisconsin and Fox rivers and the Portage Canal, 56 km/35 mi north of Madison; population (1990) 8,600. It is a manufacturing town and summer resort, situated in a mixed farming and lakeland area. Industries include dairy processing, canning, brewing, and the production of plastics, shoes, boats, and aeroplane parts. Portage was settled in 1835 around Fort Winnebago (1828); the site was a long-established portage (crossing route) between the two rivers.

The first Europeans to cross the portage were the French-born Canadian explorer Louis Joliet and Jesuit missionary Jacques Marquette in 1693. The Portage Canal linked the two rivers in the 1850s, and it became a major trade route in the 19th-century.