45 Fun Facts About Indiana Dunes National Park

The park's western section runs along the shore to Broadway in the downtown of which steel city?

About 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline stretch from Michigan City west, interrupted by steel mills and a port.

Indiana Dunes became the nation's 61st national park in which year?

Indiana Dunes became a national park in 2019, when a spending bill signed that February renamed the national lakeshore that Congress had created in 1966.

Why did the Park Service oppose upgrading Indiana Dunes to a national park?

The Park Service said the site's features fit better with lakeshores and seashores; Deputy Director P. Daniel Smith testified the renaming broke naming conventions, but Congress passed it anyway.

Which steel company built its Burns Harbor mill on leveled dunes in the 1960s?

Bethlehem Steel flattened dunes to build its Burns Harbor Works, which began finishing steel in 1964; the mill and its industrial neighbors separate the park's West Beach area from Dune Acres.

Which Danish botanist's work inspired Cowles to study dune succession?

Eugen Warming's 1895 book Plantesamfund described plant communities and how they change; the American botanist built his Indiana dune succession studies on Warming's ideas.

Which first National Park Service director held 1916 hearings on a Sand Dunes National Park?

Stephen Mather, the first National Park Service director, held public hearings in October 1916 on a Sand Dunes National Park; the idea stalled for half a century until the 1966 lakeshore.

The Hoosier Slide, a huge dune consumed by 1920, was carted away for what use?

The Hoosier Slide's sand went to Muncie for making glass: Ball Brothers used it in their blue-tinted canning jars and Hemingray in insulators. A NIPSCO generating station was later built on the site.

Who founded and led the Save the Dunes Council from 1952 to 1968?

A Wisconsin-born educator, she led the grassroots campaign that eventually won the 1966 lakeshore; the park's visitor center is named for her.

What was the Save the Dunes Council's first land purchase?

Cowles Tamarack Bog, 56 acres in Porter County, was bought in 1953 with money raised in a nationwide appeal, giving the council its first protected land.

Which Illinois senator led the congressional fight to save the dunes in the 1960s?

Paul Douglas, an economist and university professor, was Illinois senator from 1949 to 1967; the park's Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education honors him.

The so-called Kennedy Compromise of the 1960s paired the new park with what?

The Kennedy Compromise paired the national lakeshore with a deepwater port, the Port of Indiana at Burns Harbor: industry got its harbor and conservationists got their park.

What is the name of the wandering dune at the park's east end that moves about four feet a year?

Mount Baldy migrates because trampling killed the marram grass that anchored it; the dune has crept south toward its own parking lot, and free climbing of the summit ended after a 2013 collapse.

What did scientists name the hidden shafts in the park's big moving sand hill after a boy was swallowed in 2013?

Decomposition chimneys form where buried black oaks rot away and leave hollow shafts under loose sand; in 2013 six-year-old Nathan Woessner was dug out alive after more than three hours about 11 feet down.

The park's beaches are known for what acoustic curiosity?

The park newspaper is even called The Singing Sands; the sound comes from dry quartz grains squeaking underfoot.

The park's five Century of Progress houses came from which event?

The five houses were built for the Homes of Tomorrow exhibit at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, A Century of Progress, and developer Robert Bartlett moved them to Beverly Shores in 1935.

Which University of Chicago graduate, living alone in the dunes from 1915, was nicknamed Diana of the Dunes?

Alice Mabel Gray, a university graduate who had studied mathematics and astronomy, lived from 1915 in a shack she called Driftwood; newspaper coverage of 'Diana of the Dunes' helped rally support for a state park.

Who was the earliest recorded settler in the dunes, a fur trader who set up a post in 1822?

Joseph Bailly, a French-Canadian fur trader born in Quebec, built his trading post beside the river south of the dunes in 1822; the Bailly Homestead in the park preserves his family's home.

The Chellberg Farm preserved in the park represents settlers from which country?

Baillytown drew Swedish immigrants from the 1840s to the 1920s; the Burstrom Chapel and cemetery nearby are also preserved.

City West, a ghost town in the dunes planned as a rival to Chicago, failed in which year?

City West's backers hoped to outgrow the young city across the state line, but the Panic of 1837 struck the summer the town was half built and the settlement was abandoned.

Roughly how many vascular plant species have been recorded in the park?

Over 1,400 vascular plant species have been recorded in the park, where arctic relics such as bearberry grow near desert natives such as prickly pear cactus.

Which two federally listed plants grow in the park?

Pitcher's thistle, a Great Lakes dune native, and Mead's milkweed, a tallgrass prairie species, are both federally listed as threatened and survive inside the park.

Which small shorebird, federally endangered, is among the protected wildlife of the park's beaches?

The piping plover's Great Lakes population, listed as endangered in 1985, is a small pale shorebird that nests on open sand beaches; the Indiana bat, eastern massasauga and rufa red knot are also federally listed species in the park.

Pinhook Bog, an outlying unit of the park, is what type of feature?

Pinhook Bog is a quaking peat bog filling a glacial kettle, a hollow left by a buried block of ice that melted about 14,000 years ago; its floating sphagnum mat supports pitcher plants and sundews.

The bog named for the botanist who studied succession there is the last remnant of what?

The bog is the last remnant of the Central Dunes, the stretch where its namesake botanist did his succession field studies; the rest was leveled for industry in the 1960s, leaving this complex of bog, fen, marsh and pond.

Which glacial ridge is the dominant landform behind the Indiana Dunes?

The Valparaiso Moraine, left by the Lake Michigan lobe of the last ice sheet, forms the high ground south of the dunes; the younger Tinley and Lake Border moraines nest inside its arc.

Which ancient Lake Michigan shoreline forms the sand ridge followed by Ridge Road in Lake County?

The Calumet shoreline, a beach ridge left by the glacial lake that preceded Lake Michigan, carries Ridge Road across Lake County; the older Glenwood ridge lies farther south and the younger Tolleston nearer the lake.

What winter hazard forms when winds push lake ice onto the beaches into ridges that may hide air pockets?

Shelf ice builds when wind and waves pile floating ice against the shore into ridges and mounds; much of it is hollow or afloat, so a fall through can be fatal and rescue is extremely difficult.

When are rip currents most likely along the park's beaches?

A strong north wind drives waves onto the south-facing shore; water piles up behind the sandbar until it breaks back out through a narrow channel that sweeps swimmers away from the beach.

What is the name of the park's 430-acre tallgrass unit near Griffith, a National Natural Landmark?

Hoosier Prairie, a 430-acre remnant of tallgrass prairie in Griffith, is a National Natural Landmark and state nature preserve that the Indiana DNR manages under an agreement with the park.

The name of the park's Mnoké Prairie restoration, suggested by Potawatomi elders, means what?

Mnoké is a Potawatomi word meaning 'good earth', with 'mno' meaning good; Potawatomi elders suggested the name for the restored prairie in the central part of the park.

Which prefabricated post-war house type did the park acquire three of during land purchases?

Lustron houses were factory-made, enameled-steel prefabs sold from 1948 to 1950; the park came to own three of them through its land purchases.

Roughly how many visits did the park record in 2020?

The park recorded about 2 million visits in 2020 (about 2.3 million), helped by its location within an hour's drive of the region's biggest city.

Roughly how many miles of hiking trail does the park have?

The park's roughly 45 miles of trail range from the Miller Woods trail at its western end to the steep Dune Succession Trail boardwalk at West Beach.

The Oak Savannah rail trail through the park's Hobart Prairie Grove follows which old railroad?

The Oak Savannah Trail runs about nine miles from Hobart to Griffith on the former Elgin, Joliet and Eastern line; two miles cross Hobart Prairie Grove, a rare bur oak savanna above Lake George.

Which fossils, common on the park's beaches, are visitors forbidden to collect?

Crinoids, ancient sea lilies, left stony stem segments that wash up along the beaches; national park rules forbid collecting them, just as they forbid feeding gulls, deer and raccoons.

What is the tallest of the Tremont dunes in the adjoining state park, at 192 feet above lake level?

Mount Tom, 192 feet above the lake, is the highest of the three Tremont dunes in Indiana Dunes State Park; Mount Holden (184 feet) and Mount Jackson (176 feet) complete the trio.

The Great Marsh behind the dune ridge was damaged in the late 19th century by what?

Restoration began in 1998 by closing Derby Ditch, plugging culverts and replanting 500 acres.

How many expansion bills, after the 1966 act, grew the park past 15,000 acres?

Four expansion acts, in 1976, 1980, 1986 and 1992, added land to the 1966 lakeshore, taking it to about 15,349 acres across Lake, Porter and LaPorte counties.

Where is the park's Dunewood Campground?

Dunewood Campground lies on US Route 12 at Broadway, the road into Beverly Shores; it has about 66 sites, including a few walk-in tent sites, and no electric hookups.

The Bailly Homestead was designated what in 1962?

The homestead was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1962, before the national lakeshore existed; the family's main house survives on the site of the trading post.

Which president signed the 1966 act creating Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore?

Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act creating Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore on November 5, 1966, authorizing a park of about 8,300 acres after a campaign that had run since 1916.

How many miles of beach does the park contain?

The park's 15 miles of Lake Michigan beach run in separate stretches along the lake's southern shore; behind them it protects bogs, fens, prairies, oak savannas and woodland.

Roughly how many bird species have been observed in the park?

Over 350 bird species have been recorded in the park, which sits on a major migration route around the southern tip of Lake Michigan; spring and fall bring warblers and hawks through in numbers.

Which commuter railroad serves the park at stations such as Dune Park and Miller?

The South Shore Line, the electric interurban from Millennium Station in the Loop to South Bend, stops at Miller, Portage/Ogden Dunes, Dune Park and Beverly Shores, all inside or beside the park.

Which of the four glacial water bodies that built the Indiana Dunes came first?

Glacial Lake Chicago, ponded against the retreating ice about 14,000 years ago, came first; the Algonquin and Nipissing stages followed, and the present lake built the youngest ridge-and-swale shore at Miller Woods.