Rolling Prairie is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and

census-designated place A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only. CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...

(CDP) in Kankakee Township,

LaPorte County LaPorte County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2020, the population was 112,417. The county seat is the city of La Porte, and the largest city is Michigan City. This county is part of the Northwest Indiana and Michiana ...

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

, United States. As of the 2020 census, it had a population of 562.

History

The first cabin was built here in 1831 by Ezekiel Provolt. More settlers arrived, built cabins and named the settlement "Nauvoo". On November 26, 1853, the village was platted by J. W. Walker and named "Portland". The name of "Rolling Prairie", descriptive of the undulating terrain, was later adopted by one of the railroad companies operating through the town. Rolling Prairie had a stop on the

South Shore Line The South Shore Line is an electrically powered commuter rail line operated by the Northern Indiana Commuter Transportation District (NICTD) between Millennium Station in downtown Chicago, Illinois and the South Bend Airport station in Sout ...

until 1994, when it was closed along with several other flag stops with low ridership.

Geography

Rolling Prairie is located in northeastern LaPorte County in the northeast part of Kankakee Township.

U.S. Route 20 U.S. Route 20 or U.S. Highway 20 (US 20) is an east–west United States Numbered Highway that stretches from the Pacific Northwest east to New England. The "0" in its route number indicates that US 20 is a major coast-to-coast route. ...

passes through the southern side of the community, leading east to

South Bend South Bend is a city in St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, and its county seat. It lies along the St. Joseph River (Lake Michigan), St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. It is the List of cities in ...

and west to Michigan City.

Indiana State Road 2 State Road 2 (SR 2) in the U.S. State of Indiana is an east–west route running from the Illinois border at Illinois Route 17 east to the outskirts of South Bend, Indiana, at the U.S. Route 20/U.S. Route 31 freeway, also known as th ...

passes just south of Rolling Prairie, leading southwest to La Porte, the

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or parish (administrative division), civil parish. The term is in use in five countries: Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, and the United States. An equiva ...

. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the Rolling Prairie CDP has an area of , of which , or 1.39%, are water.

Education

The school district is

New Prairie United School Corporation New Prairie United School Corporation operates five schools in Indiana. The district, mostly in LaPorte County, includes the Hudson Lake and Rolling Prairie census-designated places, as well as a northeast portion of the City of LaPorte. Th ...

.
Text list
/ref> Rolling Prairie Elementary School occupies the building that was previously Rolling Prairie High School before the high school was merged with New Carlisle High School to form New Prairie High School. The elementary is one of three elementary schools in the New Prairie United School Corporation. Rolling Prairie has a

public library A public library is a library, most often a lending library, that is accessible by the general public and is usually funded from public sources, such as taxes. It is operated by librarians and library paraprofessionals, who are also Civil servic ...

, a branch of the La Porte County Public Library.

Demographics

References

Census-designated places in LaPorte County, Indiana Census-designated places in Indiana {{LaPorteCountyIN-geo-stub