You can be standing along the wide sandy beach of the Indiana Dunes State Park and enjoy the soothing sound of the water gently lapping at the shore, relishing the gentle breeze off the lake that seems to invigorate the soul. A few minutes later, you can be running for cover from the pelting sand stirred up by changing wind patterns, stinging the face and getting in the eyes.

Lake Michigan can be a temptress that can turn on her prey in a heartbeat.

A Thumbnail History

Throughout eons of constantly changing weather patterns, the dunes have withstood the best that nature could throw at them. The sand hills moved with the wind and still do so, the swirling sands over time creating new dunes, nudging old ones into new configurations, and standing as a testament to the system’s ability to adjust to any influence.

Except man.

Over the decades spanning the first part of the 20th century, the dunes were threatened with mass extinction, an unthinkable fate in this era of environmental awareness.

At the turn of the century, a massive effort was undertaken to start draining the marshes of the Calumet region. A quarter century later, some 20,000 acres of marshland had been drained. An industrial crescent was creeping from Chicago toward the current Indiana Dunes State Park, with steel mills and refineries cropping up near the new model steel mill town of Gary.

In 1916, a resolution was sponsored in the United States Senate by Indiana Senator Thomas Taggart, asking for creation of a Sand Dunes National Park, the first national park to be created from the holdings of private citizens. Despite substantial enthusiasm from influential people, the motion died as America’s entry into World War I approached.

But in 1923, the State of Indiana started the process to purchase what now is known as the Indiana Dunes State Park.

Efforts continued to create the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The Save the Dunes Council was formed in 1952. The young group approached Indiana’s two U.S. senators, Homer Capehart and Albert Jenner, to sponsor federal legislation to create the national lakeshore. When the senators refused, the council approached Illinois Sen. Paul Douglas, who became the champion for creating the national park.

Other Indiana leaders at the time including then Gov. George Craig favored industrial development of the dunes.There even was a proposal to plow through the state park and turn it into part of a giant industrial crescent from Chicago to Michigan City.

In 1966, Congress passed legislation establishing the first phase of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the park was established in 1969. But also in 1969, a resolution in the Indiana General Assembly sought to abolish the new entity. A year later, the local power company attempted to get permission to build a nuclear power plant adjacent to the scientifically important Cowles Bog unit of the national park. (The bog was named after Dr. Henry Cowles, the founder of the science of ecology.) A portion of the park was to be used as a low population “buffer” zone in the event of an accidental discharge of radioactive material. Also, it would have been necessary to lower the water table during construction of the proposed nuclear plant, which would have sucked Cowles Bog dry.
“The national lakeshore remains vigilant to the invasion of exotic species such as garlic mustard and purple loosestrife. Monitoring and eradication efforts are continual to attempt to slow the spread of these non-native organisms. Both park employees and volunteers expend many hours in the eradication process.”

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