Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore

United States National Lakeshore

The United States has ten protected areas known as national seashores and four known as national lakeshores, which are operated by the National Park Service, an agency of the Department of the Interior. National seashores and lakeshores must be established by an act of the United States Congress...

located in northwest Indiana

Indiana

Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...

and managed by the National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

. It was authorized by Congress in 1966. The national lakeshore runs for nearly 25 miles (40.2 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

, from Gary, Indiana

Gary, Indiana

Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...

, on the west to Michigan City, Indiana

Michigan City, Indiana

Michigan City's origins date to 1830, when the land for the city was first purchased by Isaac C. Elston. Elston Middle School, formerly Elston High School, located at 317 Detroit St., is named after the founder....

on the east. The park contains approximately 15000 acres (6,070.3 ha).

The National Lakeshore has development rights over the area within its boundaries, but has not purchased the full extent of the property. Its holdings are non-contiguous and do not include the Indiana Dunes State Park

Indiana Dunes State Park

Indiana DunesDesignationState Park; National Natural LandmarkLocationPorter County, Indiana, USAAddress1600 N 25 EChesterton, IN 46304Nearest CityPorter, IndianaCoordinatesAreaDate of Establishment1925...

(1916), a separate, 2182 acres (883 ha) parcel of protected dune land on the lakefront near Porter, Indiana

Porter, Indiana

Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 4,972 at the 2000 census.Porter is noted for its proximity to the Indiana Dunes State Park and for its railroad heritage...

.

The park is physically divided into an eastern area and a western area. The eastern area is roughly the lakeshore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana

Michigan City, Indiana

on the east and the Mittal Steel Plant on the west. A small extension, south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek

Salt Creek (Little Calumet River)

Salt Creek is a tributary of the East Arm Little Calumet River that begins south of Valparaiso in Porter County, Indiana and flows north until it joins the East Arm Little Calumet River just before it exits to Lake Michigan via the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.-History:In the 1936 centennial...

to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the US Steel Plant at Burns Harbor west to Broadway, downtown Gary, Indiana

Gary, Indiana

. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including; Pinhook Bog

Pinhook Bog

Indiana’s only true bog is a special geologic feature of this region which preserves a large variety of plants with extraordinary adaptations for survival. See insect eating plants and tamarack trees; walk on a boardwalk that is placed upon a floating mat of sphagnum moss. Pinhook Bog is about , a...

, in LaPorte County to the east. The Heron Rookery

Heron Rookery

The Heron Rookery was set aside to protect the nesting grounds of the Great Blue Heron . In 1980, the Indiana State Department of Correction transferred to the National Park Service in exchange for of land at Hoosier Prairie...

in Porter County, the center of the park, and the Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve and Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park. A related area is the Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve

Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve

Hoosier Prairie began in the 1970s as wasteland that conservation organization found of a unique interest. From a core of , it has grown to of diversity biological interest. The area was designated a State Nature Preserve in 1977. The sandy soil creates a variety of habitats, from oak barrens,...

, managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Indiana Department of Natural Resources

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is the agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining natural areas such as state parks, state forests, recreation areas, etc...

History

Human presences in the Indiana ground and there is little evidence of permanent communities forming during the earlier years. Archeological evidence is consistent with seasonal hunting camps. The earliest evidence for permanent camps is consistent with the Hopwellian

Hopewell culture

The Hopewell tradition is the term used to describe common aspects of the Native American culture that flourished along rivers in the northeastern and midwestern United States from 200 BCE to 500 CE. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a widely dispersed set of related...

occupation of the Ohio valley. Five groups of mounds have been documented in the dunes area. These mounds would be consistent with the period of 200 BC (Goodall Focus

Goodall Focus (Hopewellian Culture)

The Goodall Focus was a Hopewellian culture from the Middle Woodland period peoples that occupied Western Michigan and northern Indiana from around 200 BCE to 500 CE. Extensive trade networks existed at this time, particularly among the many local cultural expressions of the Hopewell communities...

) to 800 BC (early Mississippian

Mississippian culture

The Mississippian culture was a mound-building Native American culture that flourished in what is now the Midwestern, Eastern, and Southeastern United States from approximately 800 CE to 1500 CE, varying regionally....

). Even that was a short lived permanency. The advent of European exploration and trade, introduced more changes to the human environment. Tribal animosities and traditional European competition affected tribal relations. Entire populations began moving westward, while others sought to dominate large geographic trading areas. Once again the dunes became a middle point on a journey from the east or the west. It continued to remain a key hunting ground for villages over a wide area.

It wasn't until the 19th century that native villages once again were scattered through the area, but this was soon followed by European settlement. Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly was a fur trader and a member of an important French Canadian family that included his uncle, Charles-François Bailly de Messein....

was the earliest recorded settler in the dunes. He moved here from trading villages around Niles, Michigan

Niles, Michigan

Niles is a city in Berrien and Cass counties in the U.S. state of Michigan, near South Bend, Indiana. The population was 11,600 at the 2010 census. It is the greater populated of two principal cities of and included in the Niles-Benton Harbor, Michigan Metropolitan Statistical Area, which has a...

. Settling along the Calumet River

Calumet River

The Calumet River refers to a system of heavily industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the neighborhood of South Chicago in Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana.-Background:...

. Soon he was joined by a series of other settlers and the communities in the dunes began to develop. They included Chesterton

Chesterton, Indiana

Chesterton is a town in Westchester, Jackson and Liberty townships, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 13,068 at the 2010 census. The three towns of Chesterton, Burns Harbor, and Porter are known as the tri-towns or the Duneland area....

, Porter

Porter, Indiana

, Tremont

Tremont, Indiana

Tremont Founded 1833 Changed 1876 Location U.S. 12 and Tremont Road Nearest City Porter, Indiana Coordinates Tremont, Indiana, is a ghost town formerly located in what is now the Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in Westchester Township in northern Porter County,...

, and the Town of the Pines

Town of Pines, Indiana

Town of Pines is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 708 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Town of Pines is located at ....

. These pioneer communities grew and expanded. Today, the entire coast line has been settled for use as homes, factories, businesses and some reserved for public parks.
Preserving the dunes

A movement began in 1899 to preserve the unique area of the dunes. In 1916, the visionary National Parks Director Stephen Mather held hearings in Chicago on a "Sand Dunes National Park". In 1926, the Indiana Dunes State Park opened. In the 1950s, a desire to maximize economic development through a "Port of Indiana" spurred interest in preservation. Save the Dunes Council President Dorothy Buell began a nationwide campaign to buy the land. Their first success was the purchase of 56 acres (226,624.2 m²) in Porter County, the Cowles Tamarack Bog

Cowles Bog

Cowles Bog is named for Henry Chandler Cowles of the University of Chicago. Dr. Cowles is credited with the creation of the concept of Ecology. It was here at Cowles Bog that Dr. Cowles did his pioneering work. The bog is a National Natural Landmark. Cowles Bog is more than 8,000 years old and...

. The Kennedy Compromise entailed the creation of a national lakeshore and a port. Then Illinois Senator Paul H. Douglas lead the Congressional effort to save the dunes. In late 1966, the bill passed and the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore became a reality. Four subsequent expansion bills for the park (1976, 1980, 1986, and 1992) have increased the size of the park to more than 15000 acres (60.7 km²).

Geology of the Lakeshore

The Lake Michigan Basin was formed during the Wisconsin Glacial Period. The Michigan Lobe of the continental glacier began its retreat northward over 20,000 years before present (YBP) forming the southern shore of the Lake Michigan Basin.

The Valparaiso Moraine

Valparaiso Moraine

The Valparaiso Moraine is a terminal moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It is a band of high, hilly terrain made up of glacial till and sand that reaches an elevation of near 300 feet above the level of Lake Michigan at its maximum height in Indiana and 17 miles wide at its...

is the dominant geologic form that created the various landscape forms of the Indiana Dunes, about 40,000 YBP. Within the arc created by the Valparaiso Moraine are two younger recessional moraines of the Tinley Moraine

Tinley Moraine

The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine farther from the lake than it. Compared to the Valparaiso Moraine, the Tinley...

and the Lake Border Moraine. Each moraine created an artificial dam across the southern outflow of the melt waters of the receding glaciers. As each glacial lake breached a low spot in the moraines, water levels receded, leaving a series of shorelines and dune ridges.

The Calumet Shoreline

Calumet Shoreline

The Calumet Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of Lake Michigan located in the Lake Michigan Basin. It can be clearly seen as a sand ridge along Ridge Road south of Chicago. Closer to the lake from the Calumet Shoreline, there are the Tolleston shorelines and farther from the lake are the Glenwood...

is the oldest visible shoreline of Lake Michigan. It is a visible a sand ridge along Ridge Road through Lake

Lake County, Indiana

Lake County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. In 2010, its population was 496,005, making it Indiana's second-most populous county. The county seat is Crown Point. This county is part of Northwest Indiana and the Chicago metropolitan area. The county contains a mix of urban,...

and Porter

Porter County, Indiana

Porter County is a county located in the U.S. state of Indiana. As of 2010, the population was 164,343. Much of the population growth has to do with the expansion of the Chicago Metropolitan Area eastward into Indiana. The county seat is Valparaiso...

Counties, Indiana. Two older shorelines, the Tolleston and the Glenwood Shoreline

Glenwood Shoreline

The Glenwood Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of the precursor to Lake Michigan, Lake Chicago. It is named after the town of Glenwood, Illinois. The shoreline was formed when the lake was higher during the last Ice Age when ice blocked the Straits of Mackinac and after the straits were freed the...

are much harder to identify and further south in the counties.

During the periods of glacial retreat, there were periods of stability. During these times, glacial lakes formed along the southern borders of the glaciers, bound into the Lake Michigan Basin by the recessional moraines. Four major glacial lake periods created the Indiana Dunes. They are the glacial Lake Chicago

Lake Chicago

This article is about the prehistoric lake, For other geographic features with this name, see ChicagoLake Chicago was a prehistoric proglacial lake that is the ancestor of what is now known as Lake Michigan, one of North America's five Great Lakes....

(14,000 YBP), Glacial Lake Algonquin

Glacial Lake Algonquin

Lake Algonquin was a proglacial lake that existed in east-central North America at the time of the last ice age. Parts of the former lake are now Lake Huron, Georgian Bay and inland portions of northern Michigan....

(9,000 YBP), glacial Lake Chippewa (7,000 YBP), and Lake Nipissing

Lake Nipissing

Lake Nipissing is a lake in the Canadian province of Ontario. It has a surface area of , a mean elevation of above sea level, and is located between the Ottawa River and Georgian Bay. Excluding the Great Lakes, Lake Nipissing is the fifth-largest lake in Ontario. It is relatively shallow for a...

stage (4,000 YBP). Once the glaciers had fully retreated from the Lake Michigan basin, post Lake Nipissing stage, the same factors that created the dunes south of the current shoreline, expanded the existing shoreline. The littoral currents or Longshore drift

Longshore drift

Longshore drift consists of the transportation of sediments along a coast at an angle to the shoreline, which is dependent on prevailing wind direction, swash and backwash. This process occurs in the littoral zone, and in or within close proximity to the surf zone...

transport sand southward along the eastern shore of Lake Michigan. As they encounter streams bringing water from inland, sandbars are created, pointing down current, either southward if the shore is north to south or westward along the southern shore itself. If the currents are strong enough as they were when the Glenwood Shoreline was created, shallow inland bays would be formed with a wide sand spit between it and the open lake. Over time, the sand spits would merge with the far shoreline forming interdunal ponds. Each sand spit would be come a dune ridge. As the ponds filled in and wind built the outer sand ridges higher, the ponds would dry up and only a stream would remain, as the Little Calumet River does today, just south the state and national parks. As the shoreline moved northward, new ridges formed, additional streams, now slower and less powerful formed and the process duplicated itself. To the west of the Indiana Dunes, Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana

Hammond, Indiana

Hammond is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. It is part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 80,830 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Hammond is located at ....

forms a western border to the dunes. Here the same process is at work, only the littoral drift is again south, but along the western shore, pushing the sand and sand spits eastward. Today, it is the remants of the marsh lands and inter-dunal or inter-sand spit lakes that have formed this region over 40,000 years.

Flora and fauna

The park is in the Central forest-grasslands transition

Central forest-grasslands transition

The Central forest-grasslands transition are a prairie ecoregion of the central United States, part of the North American Great Plains.-Setting:...

ecoregion

Ecoregion

An ecoregion , sometimes called a bioregion, is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than an ecozone and larger than an ecosystem. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of land or water, and contain characteristic, geographically distinct assemblages of natural...

.

BioBlitz 2009: Indiana Dunes was the third of ten National Park Units to participate in a National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

The National Geographic Society , headquartered in Washington, D.C. in the United States, is one of the largest non-profit scientific and educational institutions in the world. Its interests include geography, archaeology and natural science, the promotion of environmental and historical...

and National Park Service

National Park Service

The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

BioBlitz. For twenty-four hours beginning at noon May 15, citizen scientist (volunteers) and scientists explored the national lakeshore, attempting to document all the life forms along the shoreline. This joint project began in 2007 at Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway

Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway

The Rock Creek and Potomac Parkway, often known simply as the Rock Creek Parkway, is a parkway maintained by the National Park Service as part of Rock Creek Park in Washington, D.C...

in Washington, D.C. In 2008, it moved to the west coast and Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area or SMMNRA, is a United States National Recreation Area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California...

spent twenty-four hours documenting thousands of species. The program is a joint effort by the National Park Service and the National Geographic Society

National Geographic Society

in collaboration with local environmental groups: Dunes Learning Center, Chicago Wilderness, Great Lakes Research and Education Center, Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Indiana Department of Natural Resources

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is the agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining natural areas such as state parks, state forests, recreation areas, etc...

, Sea Grant of Illinois-Indiana, and the United States Geological Survey

United States Geological Survey

The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...

.

Rare, Threatened, and Endangered Species

The park includes habitats for several rare plants and animals. None of the plants are on the Federal list of Threatened and Endangered Species (T&E Species), but several are on the list of State T&E Species. Populations of each plant group are estimated to be around 100-120 individual plants. The species included are:

White baneberry, (Actaea pachypoda)
Virginia snake root (Aristolochia
Aristolochia
Aristolochia is a large plant genus with over 500 species. Collectively known as birthworts, pipevines or Dutchman's pipes, they are the namesake of the family . They are widespread and occur in the most diverse climates. Some species, like A. utriformis and A...

serpentaria)
Shooting Star
Dodecatheon
Dodecatheon is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the Primrose family Primulaceae. The species have basal clumps of leaves and nodding flowers that are produced at the top of tall stems that rise from where the leaves join the crown. They are commonly called Shooting Stars because of the...

(Dodecatheon media)
American columbo (Frasera caroliniensis
Swertia
Swertia is a genus in the gentian family containing plants sometimes referred to as the felworts. Some species bear very showy purple and blue flowers....

)
Pink corydalis (Corydalis sempervirens)

Among the rare and endangered wildlife are:

Indiana bat
Indiana bat
The Indiana bat is a medium-sized mouse-eared bat native to North America. It lives primarily in eastern and midwestern states and in parts of the south of the United States. The Indiana bat is gray, black, or chestnut in colour and is 1.2–2 inches and weighs about 1/4 an ounce...

, (Myotis sodalis)
eastern massasauga rattlesnake, (Sistrurus catenatus
Sistrurus catenatus
Sistrurus catenatus is a venomous pitviper species found primarily in the United States. Three subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominate subspecies described here.-Description:...

catenatus)

In addition, the park has habitat suitable for:

bald eagle
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle is a bird of prey found in North America. It is the national bird and symbol of the United States of America. This sea eagle has two known sub-species and forms a species pair with the White-tailed Eagle...

, (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Species Count

The numbers below are taken from the Main Articles or See also articles attached to this page. They will be updated as additional list/articles are created.

Group	Number of Species	Extirpated Species		See Also
Chordate Chordate Chordates are animals which are either vertebrates or one of several closely related invertebrates. They are united by having, for at least some period of their life cycle, a notochord, a hollow dorsal nerve cord, pharyngeal slits, an endostyle, and a post-anal tail... s or Animals with Backbones
Mammal Mammal Mammals are members of a class of air-breathing vertebrate animals characterised by the possession of endothermy, hair, three middle ear bones, and mammary glands functional in mothers with young... s or Mammalia				Mammals of the Indiana Dunes Mammals of the Indiana Dunes Thirty-seven species of mammals have been identified at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Four other species are thought to inhabit the park, but have not been documented: the northern long-eared myotis , the Indiana bat , the hoary bat , and the southern bog lemming Common mammals seen by...
Bird Bird Birds are feathered, winged, bipedal, endothermic , egg-laying, vertebrate animals. Around 10,000 living species and 188 families makes them the most speciose class of tetrapod vertebrates. They inhabit ecosystems across the globe, from the Arctic to the Antarctic. Extant birds range in size from... s or Aves				Birds of the Indiana Dunes Birds of the Indiana Dunes The Indiana Dunes protect over of dunes and shoreline. From the barren sand beaches to the inter-dunal ponds and the intervening forest, this area is inhabited by 271 identified species of birds....
Reptile Reptile Reptiles are members of a class of air-breathing, ectothermic vertebrates which are characterized by laying shelled eggs , and having skin covered in scales and/or scutes. They are tetrapods, either having four limbs or being descended from four-limbed ancestors... s or Reptilia				List of reptiles of the Indiana Dunes
Amphibian Amphibian Amphibians , are a class of vertebrate animals including animals such as toads, frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. They are characterized as non-amniote ectothermic tetrapods... s or Amphibia				List of Amphibians of the Indiana Dunes
Fish Fish Fish are a paraphyletic group of organisms that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic vertebrate animals that lack limbs with digits. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous and bony fish, as well as various extinct related groups...				List of fish of the Indiana Dunes
Invertebrate Invertebrate An invertebrate is an animal without a backbone. The group includes 97% of all animal species – all animals except those in the chordate subphylum Vertebrata .Invertebrates form a paraphyletic group... or Animals without Backbones
Arthropoda (Crustacea)-Crustacean Crustacean Crustaceans form a very large group of arthropods, usually treated as a subphylum, which includes such familiar animals as crabs, lobsters, crayfish, shrimp, krill and barnacles. The 50,000 described species range in size from Stygotantulus stocki at , to the Japanese spider crab with a leg span...				List of crustaceans of the Indiana Dunes
Arthropoda (Chelicerata Chelicerata The subphylum Chelicerata constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda, and includes horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders and mites... )-Arachnida				List of Arachnids of the Indiana Dunes
Arthropoda (Chelicerata Chelicerata The subphylum Chelicerata constitutes one of the major subdivisions of the phylum Arthropoda, and includes horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders and mites... )-Insects				Insects of the Indiana Dunes Insects of the Indiana Dunes Many insects are considered pests by humans. Those insects regarded as pests include those that are parasitic , transmit diseases , damage structures , or destroy agricultural goods . Many more insects are beneficial to the environment and to humans... and Ants of the Indiana Dunes
Arthropoda (Myriapoda Myriapoda Myriapoda is a subphylum of arthropods containing millipedes, centipedes, and others. The group contains 13,000 species, all of which are terrestrial... )- other Invertebrates				Invertebrates of Indiana Dunes
Annelida-segmented worms
Mollusca Mollusca The Mollusca , common name molluscs or mollusksSpelled mollusks in the USA, see reasons given in Rosenberg's ; for the spelling mollusc see the reasons given by , is a large phylum of invertebrate animals. There are around 85,000 recognized extant species of molluscs. Mollusca is the largest...				List of non-marine mollusks of the Indiana Dunes
Plants or Plantae
Vascular plant Vascular plant Vascular plants are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms... –fern Fern A fern is any one of a group of about 12,000 species of plants belonging to the botanical group known as Pteridophyta. Unlike mosses, they have xylem and phloem . They have stems, leaves, and roots like other vascular plants... s.				All samples were confirmed in the Indiana Dunes State Park Indiana Dunes State Park Indiana DunesDesignationState Park; National Natural LandmarkLocationPorter County, Indiana, USAAddress1600 N 25 EChesterton, IN 46304Nearest CityPorter, IndianaCoordinatesAreaDate of Establishment1925...
Vascular plant-clubmosses
Vascular plant-flowering plants				Flowering Plants of the Indiana Dunes
Vascular plant-conifers

Fungi
Bryophytes - Bryophyta Moss Mosses are small, soft plants that are typically 1–10 cm tall, though some species are much larger. They commonly grow close together in clumps or mats in damp or shady locations. They do not have flowers or seeds, and their simple leaves cover the thin wiry stems... (mosses), Marchantiophyta Marchantiophyta The Marchantiophyta are a division of bryophyte plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like other bryophytes, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of genetic information.... (liverworts), and Anthocerotophyta (hornworts).
Algae Algae Algae are a large and diverse group of simple, typically autotrophic organisms, ranging from unicellular to multicellular forms, such as the giant kelps that grow to 65 meters in length. They are photosynthetic like plants, and "simple" because their tissues are not organized into the many... - especially the green algae.
Lichen Lichen Lichens are composite organisms consisting of a symbiotic organism composed of a fungus with a photosynthetic partner , usually either a green alga or cyanobacterium... s algae and fungi in a symbiotic arrangement				Change in the number of species between 1896 (Calkins) and 1986 (Wetmore)
Invasive Plants				List of invasive plant species in the Indiana Dunes
Plankton and other microscopic life forms
Plankton Plankton Plankton are any drifting organisms that inhabit the pelagic zone of oceans, seas, or bodies of fresh water. That is, plankton are defined by their ecological niche rather than phylogenetic or taxonomic classification...
Total to date

Wildlife - Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is full of wildlife, including white-tailed deer

White-tailed Deer

The white-tailed deer , also known as the Virginia deer or simply as the whitetail, is a medium-sized deer native to the United States , Canada, Mexico, Central America, and South America as far south as Peru...

, Red Fox

Red Fox

The red fox is the largest of the true foxes, as well as being the most geographically spread member of the Carnivora, being distributed across the entire northern hemisphere from the Arctic Circle to North Africa, Central America, and the steppes of Asia...

, raccoon

Raccoon

Procyon is a genus of nocturnal mammals, comprising three species commonly known as raccoons, in the family Procyonidae. The most familiar species, the common raccoon , is often known simply as "the" raccoon, as the two other raccoon species in the genus are native only to the tropics and are...

s, opossums, cottontail rabbit

Cottontail rabbit

The cottontail rabbits are among the 16 lagomorph species in the genus Sylvilagus, found in the Americas.In appearance, most cottontail rabbits closely resemble the wild European Rabbit...

s, Canada geese

Canada Goose

The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....

, seagull

Gull

Gulls are birds in the family Laridae. They are most closely related to the terns and only distantly related to auks, skimmers, and more distantly to the waders...

s, squirrel

Squirrel

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...

s, hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

s, Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

The Turkey Vulture is a bird found throughout most of the Americas. It is also known in some North American regions as the Turkey Buzzard , and in some areas of the Caribbean as the John Crow or Carrion Crow...

s, mallard

Mallard

The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....

s, Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...

s, garter snake

Garter snake

The Garter snake is a Colubrid snake genus common across North America, ranging from Alaska and Canada to Central America. It is the single most widely distributed genus of reptile in North America. The garter snake is also the Massachusettsstate reptile.There is no real consensus on the...

s, songbirds, and rodents.

Flowering Plants - The Indiana Dunes has over 369 species of flowering plants. Of these, thirteen are considered Threatened or Endanger of extinction. Additionally, there four invasive flowering plants on the list. Some of the most common spring flowers include the May Apple, buttercups (6 varieties), and violets (14 varieties). Summer brings out the orchids (5 varieties) and lots of goldenrod

Goldenrod

Solidago, commonly called goldenrods, is a genus of about 100 species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae. Most are herbaceous perennial species found in the meadows and pastures, along roads, ditches and waste areas in North America. There are also a few species native to Mexico, South...

(11 varieties).

Invasive Plants - Invasive plants are those introduced species that dominate a landscape pushing out traditionally native species and others species by their ability to multiply rapidly. There are 54 such species in the dunes.

Unusual Sightings

In October 1920, a rare Arctic Three-toed Woodpecker
American Three-toed Woodpecker
The American Three-toed woodpecker, Picoides dorsalis is a medium-sized woodpecker .This woodpecker has a length of 21 cm and a wingspan of 38 cm and closely resembles the Black-backed Woodpecker, which is also three-toed. Until recently, it was considered to be the same species as the Eurasian...

was captured a mile west of Dune Park Station. Later that month another male was captured east of Dune Park Station. One was busy digging out grubs and the other was nervously flying from tree to tree.

In May 1919, a Clay-colored Sparrow
Clay-colored Sparrow
The Clay-colored Sparrow is a small sparrow of North America.-Overview:Adults have light brown upperparts and pale underparts, with darker streaks on the back. They have a pale crown stripe on a dark brown crown, a white line over the eyes, a dark line through the eyes, a light brown cheek patch...

was found near Dune Park. It was a part of a larger flock of Harris's Sparrow

Harris's Sparrow

The Harris's Sparrow, Zonotrichia querula, is a large sparrow.Their breeding habitat is the north part of central Canada . In fact, this bird is Canada's only endemic breeder...

migrating along the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Extirpated Species

Several species of plants and animals have disappeared from the dunes. Few can be clearly identified. Among those species thought to be gone are listed below:

Species	Latin Name	Last Seen
Eastern Cougar	F.c. Cougaur
American Bison American Bison The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...	Bos Bison
Elk Elk The Elk is the large deer, also called Cervus canadensis or wapiti, of North America and eastern Asia.Elk may also refer to:Other antlered mammals:...	Wapiti (Cervus elephus)
Lynx Lynx A lynx is any of the four Lynx genus species of medium-sized wildcats. The name "lynx" originated in Middle English via Latin from Greek word "λύγξ", derived from the Indo-European root "*leuk-", meaning "light, brightness", in reference to the luminescence of its reflective eyes...	Lynx lynx
Bobcat Bobcat The bobcat is a North American mammal of the cat family Felidae, appearing during the Irvingtonian stage of around 1.8 million years ago . With twelve recognized subspecies, it ranges from southern Canada to northern Mexico, including most of the continental United States...	Lynx rufus
Gray Wolf Gray Wolf The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...	Canius Lupus
Red Wolf Red Wolf The red wolf is a North American canid which once roamed throughout the Southeastern United States and is a glacial period survivor of the Late Pleistocene epoch...	Canus Rufus
Black Bear American black bear The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...	Ursus Americanus
Fisher (animal) Fisher (animal) The fisher is a medium-size mammal native to North America. It is a member of the mustelid family, commonly referred to as the weasel family. The fisher is closely related to but larger than the American Marten...	Martes Pennanti
River Otter River Otter Not to be confused with the animal Otter or the River Ottery in CornwallThe River Otter rises in the Blackdown Hills just inside the county of Somerset, near Otterford, then flows south for some 32 km through East Devon to the English Channel at the western end of Lyme Bay, part of...	Lutra canadenais
Porcupine Porcupine Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend or camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Porcupines are the third largest of the rodents, behind the capybara and the beaver. Most porcupines are about long, with...	Erethizon dorsatum
Passenger Pigeon Passenger Pigeon The Passenger Pigeon or Wild Pigeon was a bird, now extinct, that existed in North America and lived in enormous migratory flocks until the early 20th century...	Ectopistes migratorius
Piping Plover Piping Plover The Piping Plover is a small sand-colored, sparrow-sized shorebird that nests and feeds along coastal sand and gravel beaches in North America. The adult has yellow-orange legs, a black band across the forehead from eye to eye, and a black ring around the neck...	Charadrius melodus

Exotic and Invasive Species

Alien or exotic species are plants and animals which are not native to the area. These plants can be classified as Invasive if they rapidly replace other plants and animals in the ecosystem, creating a monoculture and threatening the extinction of the tradiational plants and animals. Among plants found in the park, the following are considered to be exotic. Those marked with an '*' are listed as invasive

Yarrow
Yarrow
Achillea millefolium or yarrow is a flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. In New Mexico and southern Colorado, it is called plumajillo, or "little feather", for the shape of the leaves. In antiquity, yarrow was known as herbal militaris, for its use in...

, (Achillea millefolium)
Tree of heaven
Tree of heaven
Ailanthus altissima , commonly known as tree of heaven, ailanthus, or in Standard Chinese as chouchun , is a deciduous tree in the Simaroubaceae family. It is native to both northeast and central China and Taiwan. Unlike other members of the genus Ailanthus, it is found in temperate climates rather...

, (Ailanthus altissima)*
Garlic mustard
Garlic Mustard
Garlic mustard is a biennial flowering plant in the Mustard family, Brassicaceae. It is native to Europe, western and central Asia, and northwestern Africa, from Morocco, Iberia and the British Isles, north to northern Scandinavia, and east to northern India and western China...

, (Alliaria petiolata)*
Japanese barberry, (Berberis thunbergii)*
Oriental bittersweet, (Celastrus orbiculatus)*
Ox-eye daisy, (Chrysanthemum leucanthemum pinnatifidum)
Field thistle, (Cirsium arvense)*
Common day-flower, (Commelina communis
Commelina communis
Commelina communis, commonly known as the Asiatic dayflower, is an herbaceous annual plant in the dayflower family. It is native throughout much of East Asia and northern parts of Southeast Asia. In China, the plant is known as yazhicao , roughly translating to "duckfoot herb", while in Japan it...

)
Queen Anne's lace
Queen Anne's lace
Queen Anne's lace may refer to the following plants:* Ammi majus* Daucus carota* Anthriscus sylvestris...

, (Daucus carota)
Autumn olive, (Eleaegnus umbellate)*
Creeping Charlie
Creeping charlie
Creeping charlie is a common name for several species of flowering plants:*Glechoma hederacea, also known as "ground ivy", in family Lamiaceae*Malva sylvestris, also known as "common mallow" or "high mallow" or "tall mallow", in family Malvaceae...

, (Glechoma hederacea)*
Yellow downy bush honeysuckle
Honeysuckle
Honeysuckles are arching shrubs or twining vines in the family Caprifoliaceae, native to the Northern Hemisphere. There are about 180 species of honeysuckle, 100 of which occur in China; Europe, India and North America have only about 20 native species each...

, (Lonicera x muendeniensis)
Bush honeysuckle
Bush Honeysuckle
Bush Honeysuckle is genus of three species of deciduous shrubs in the family Caprifoliaceae, all indigenous to eastern North America. The genus is named after a French surgeon Dr...

, (Lonicera tartarica)*

English plantain, (Plantago lanceolata)
Japanese knotweed
Japanese knotweed
Japanese Knotweed is a large, herbaceous perennial plant, native to eastern Asia in Japan, China and Korea...

, (polygonum cuspidatum)*
Sulphur cinquefoil, (Potentilla recta)
All-heal, (Prunella spp.)
Apple
Apple
The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

, (Pyrus malus)
Black locust
Black locust
Robinia pseudoacacia, commonly known as the Black Locust, is a tree in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae. It is native to the southeastern United States, but has been widely planted and naturalized elsewhere in temperate North America, Europe, Southern Africa and Asia and is...

, (Robinia pseudoacacia)*

Natural areas

Calumet Prairie
Calumet Prairie is a joint venture between the National Park Service and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve in the northern portion of the land between Interstate 90 to the north and the Little Calumet River on the south. The National Lakeshore owns the southern half of this plot.

Cowles Bog

Cowles Bog, a National Natural Landmark

National Natural Landmark

The National Natural Landmark program recognizes and encourages the conservation of outstanding examples of the natural history of the United States. It is the only natural areas program of national scope that identifies and recognizes the best examples of biological and geological features in...

, is a fen wetland

Wetland

A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....

named in honor of biologist

Biologist

A biologist is a scientist devoted to and producing results in biology through the study of life. Typically biologists study organisms and their relationship to their environment. Biologists involved in basic research attempt to discover underlying mechanisms that govern how organisms work...

and ecologist

Ecology

Ecology is the scientific study of the relations that living organisms have with respect to each other and their natural environment. Variables of interest to ecologists include the composition, distribution, amount , number, and changing states of organisms within and among ecosystems...

Henry Chandler Cowles

Henry Chandler Cowles was an American botanist and ecological pioneer . Born in Kensington, Connecticut, he attended Oberlin College in Ohio. He studied at the University of Chicago with the plant taxonomist John M. Coulter and the geologist Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin as main teachers. He...

. Located south and west of Dune Acres, Indiana

Dune Acres, Indiana

Dune Acres is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 182 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Dune Acres is located at ....

, Cowles Bog is the sole remaining remnant of the "Central Dunes" where Cowles performed his pioneering field studies of Ecological succession

Ecological succession

Ecological succession, is the phenomenon or process by which a community progressively transforms itself until a stable community is formed. It is a fundamental concept in ecology, and refers to more or less predictable and orderly changes in the composition or structure of an ecological community...

and species diversity. A National Lakeshore trail runs from Mineral Springs Road into Cowles Bog.

Great Marsh

The Great Marsh is an interdunal wetland

Interdunal wetland

An interdunal wetland or interdunal pond is a water-filled depression between coastal sand dunes. It may be formed either by wind erosion or by dunal encroachment on an existing wetland...

just south of the dune ridge overlooking Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

. It stretches from steel plants in Burns Harbor

Burns Harbor, Indiana

Burns Harbor is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States on the shores of Lake Michigan in Northwest Indiana and is part of the Chicago metropolitan area...

, 12 miles (19.3 km) east to County Line Road on the edge of Michigan City

Michigan City, Indiana

. A century ago, it was the nesting and migratory layover for many birds, which depended on its variety of plants. In the late 19th century, the marsh was drained through a series of ditches, creating three watersheds and reducing the water table

Water table

The water table is the level at which the submarine pressure is far from atmospheric pressure. It may be conveniently visualized as the 'surface' of the subsurface materials that are saturated with groundwater in a given vicinity. However, saturated conditions may extend above the water table as...

. As the water levels changed, new plants and trees moved in, creating a new habitat and displacing the wildlife that was dependent on the pre-existing wetlands.

Native Plants & Animals
- Coots
- Mallards
- Wood Duck
  Wood Duck
  The Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a species of duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful of North American waterfowl.-Description:...
  
  s
- Kingfishers
- Tree Swallow
  Tree Swallow
  The Tree Swallow, Tachycineta bicolor, is a migratory passerine bird that breeds in North America and winters in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. It is a very rare vagrant to western Europe....
  
  s
- Rusty Blackbird
  Rusty Blackbird
  The Rusty Blackbird, Euphagus carolinus, is a medium-sized blackbird, closely related to grackles .-Appearance:...
  
  s
- Green Herons
- Beaver
  Beaver
  The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
- sedges
  Cyperaceae
  Cyperaceae are a family of monocotyledonous graminoid flowering plants known as sedges, which superficially resemble grasses or rushes. The family is large, with some 5,500 species described in about 109 genera. These species are widely distributed, with the centers of diversity for the group...

Invasive Plants
- common reed
  Phragmites
  Phragmites, the Common reed, is a large perennial grass found in wetlands throughout temperate and tropical regions of the world. Phragmites australis is sometimes regarded as the sole species of the genus Phragmites, though some botanists divide Phragmites australis into three or four species...
- hybrid cattail
- Reed canary grass
  Reed canary grass
  Reed canarygrass, Phalaris arundinacea, is a tall, perennial bunchgrass that commonly forms extensive single-species stands along the margins of lakes and streams and in wet open areas, with a wide distribution in Europe, Asia, northern Africa and North America.-Description:The stems can reach 2.5...
- Green Ash
- Cottonwood
- Silver Maple

Restoration

Beginning in 1998, the national lakeshore began restoration of the marsh by closing Derby Ditch and restoring 500 acres (202.3 ha). The work consist of:

- Plugging culverts
- Filling ditches
- Creating levees with spillways
- Planting native plants, either as seed or small sprouts
- Removing non-native plants and trees

Heron Rookery

The Heron

Heron

The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....

Rookery is located along the East Arm Little Calumet River

East Arm Little Calumet River

The East Arm Little Calumet River is a portion of the Little Calumet River that begins just east of Holmesville, Indiana in New Durham Township in LaPorte County and flows west to Porter County and the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.-History:...

in the northeast corner of Porter County

Porter County, Indiana

. The Rookery is physically separated from the main part of the park. It is accessible from County Road 600 East, south of County Road 1400 North. The rookery is a hardwood

Hardwood

Hardwood is wood from angiosperm trees . It may also be used for those trees themselves: these are usually broad-leaved; in temperate and boreal latitudes they are mostly deciduous, but in tropics and subtropics mostly evergreen.Hardwood contrasts with softwood...

forest. In the spring, the Great Blue Herons can be seen nesting in the dead snags north of the river. Spring also brings out a variety of wildflowers.

Hoosier Prairie
Hoosier Prairie, a National Natural Landmark

National Natural Landmark

, is a 430 acre (1.7 km²) tallgrass prairie

Prairie

Prairies are considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type...

adjacent to Griffith, Indiana

Griffith, Indiana

Griffith is a town in Calumet and St. John townships, Lake County, Indiana. It is a part of the Chicago metropolitan area. The population was 16,893 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...

. It is a geographically isolated unit of the Lakeshore, owned and maintained by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources

Indiana Department of Natural Resources

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources is the agency of the U.S. state of Indiana charged with maintaining natural areas such as state parks, state forests, recreation areas, etc...

as a state nature preserve. Some 574 species of plants have been observed growing in this patch of prairie.

Miller Woods

Miller Woods is located in Miller Beach

Miller Beach

Miller Beach is a community on the southernmost shore of Lake Michigan. Originally an independent town first settled in 1851, Miller was annexed by the city of Gary, Indiana in 1918...

, Indiana It is accessed through the Douglas Center for Environmental Education on Lake Street. The area is dominated by dune and swale topography. the ridges or swells are beach and dune sand. They date from the post Glacial lake Nipissing period some 3000 years before present. The swales are the depressions between the ridges. They are generally either ponds or marshes.

Mnoke Prairie

Mnoke Prairie is an active prairie restoration along Beam Street in the Town of Porter

Porter, Indiana

.

Mount Baldy

Mount Baldy is a sand dune located west of Michigan City, Indiana

Michigan City, Indiana

. At 123 feet (37.5 m) tall, it is one of the tallest sand dunes on the southern shore of Lake Michigan. It is a wandering dune that moves an average of 4 feet (1.2 m) every year, and so is called a "living dune." Mount Baldy is accessible from U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12 or US 12 is an east–west United States highway, running from Grays Harbor on the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Washington, to downtown Detroit, for almost . As a thoroughfare, it has mostly been supplanted by I-90 and I-94, but remains an important road for local travel.The...

(also known as Dunes Highway) between the Town of Pines

Town of Pines, Indiana

Town of Pines is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 708 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Town of Pines is located at ....

and the western border of Michigan City. Visitors can hike 0.7 miles (1.1 km) up the dune and from the top, on a clear day, can view Chicago's skyline and the south shore. North of Mount Baldy is a swimming beach. As of early 2007 the dune hike to the summit is closed due to erosion of the dune, however a new trail through the forest will still take hikers to the summit.

Pinhook Bog

Pinhook Bog, a National Natural Landmark

National Natural Landmark

, is a geographically isolated unit of the National Lakeshore. The quaking peat bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

is located near U.S. Route 421

U.S. Route 421

U.S. Route 421 is a spur route of U.S. 21. It runs for from Michigan City, Indiana, at U.S. 20, to Fort Fisher in North Carolina. The highway goes through the cities of Indianapolis, Indiana, Lexington, Kentucky, Boone, North Carolina, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Greensboro, North Carolina and...

approximately 9 miles (14.5 km) south of Michigan City. The bog formed from a postglacial kettle moraine

Moraine

A moraine is any glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris which can occur in currently glaciated and formerly glaciated regions, such as those areas acted upon by a past glacial maximum. This debris may have been plucked off a valley floor as a glacier advanced or it may have...

left behind about 14,000 years before the present by the melting of the ice sheet during the end of the Last glacial period. The acidic bog is noted for pitcher plant

Pitcher plant

Pitcher plants are carnivorous plants whose prey-trapping mechanism features a deep cavity filled with liquid known as a pitfall trap. It has been widely assumed that the various sorts of pitfall trap evolved from rolled leaves, with selection pressure favouring more deeply cupped leaves over...

s and other wetland species. Access to the bog is restricted to ranger-led guided tours.

Historic areas

Bailly-Chellberg Farms

The Bailly-Chellberg farmstead is located close to the geographic center of the National Lakeshore, at U.S. Route 20

U.S. Route 20

U.S. Route 20 is an east–west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number implies, US 20 is a coast-to-coast route. Spanning , it is the longest road in the United States, and the route sparsely parallels Interstate 90...

and Mineral Springs Road.

Bailly Homestead

This is the location of the pioneer trading post

Joseph Bailly Homestead

The Joseph Bailly Homestead, also known as Joseph Bailly Homestead and Cemetery, in Porter, Indiana, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark....

established in 1822 by fur trade

Fur trade

The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of world market for in the early modern period furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the most valued...

pioneer Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly was a fur trader and a member of an important French Canadian family that included his uncle, Charles-François Bailly de Messein....

. Bailly settled here and his last home, adapted from his 1830s retirement house, survives. The Homestead was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark

National Historic Landmark

A National Historic Landmark is a building, site, structure, object, or district, that is officially recognized by the United States government for its historical significance...

in 1962.

Chellburg Farm

The real estate became the home of the Chellberg family, who built a farm on its sandy soil. , the Lakeshore maintains a heritage farm

Farm museum

A farm museum is a museum based on a historical farm and its buildings, presenting agricultural history. Often the farm is still a working farm, for demonstration and educational purposes....

on the Chellberg land, with the Bailly family cemetery on the northern edge of the property.

Bailly Cemetery

The Bailly Cemetery is located half a mile north of the homestead. Its location is a sandy bluff, which once looked out across the dunes to Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

. Today, the forest covers the dunes and the lake is no visible. Numerous changes have occurred since the first burial in 1827.

Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly

Joseph Bailly was a fur trader and a member of an important French Canadian family that included his uncle, Charles-François Bailly de Messein....

buried his only son by Marie in the fall of 1827 on a sandy knoll. He erected an oak cross on the site and a three-sided shelter. After 1866, the Bailly area was no longer the quiet place that it had been. Other families now lived in the area and some had been using the cemetery for their families. Late in 1866, Rose Howe (granddaughter of Joseph Bailly) had the family plots fenced and requested that other remove their family to other cemeteries. In 1879, she had the entire cemetery walled in and an iron gate installed to the north.

Finally in 1914, Rose Howe took one further step to protect the cemetery of her family. She had the area inside the wall filled with sand. Stone steps replaced the gate to a contemplative walk atop the cemetery. An oaken cross was raised atop this new ground, continuing the tradition started by her grandfather. Rose Howe died in 1916, while in California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

. She was returned to Indiana in 1917 and was the last burial in the family cemetery.

Century of Progress Architectural District

The Century of Progress Architectural District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is located in Beverly Shores, Indiana

Beverly Shores, Indiana

Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

. The district consists of a total of five buildings, all from the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition

1933 Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition

The Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition was part of the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The Fair's theme that year was a Century of Progress, and celebrated man's innovations in architecture, science, technology and transportation...

during the 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair which took place in Chicago.

Good Fellow Club Youth Camp

Created by the Good Fellow Club of U.S. Steel in 1941, the camp served the children of Gary, Indiana

Gary, Indiana

until 1977. It provided outdoor recreation and a chance to leave the city behind for a week or more. The camp used tent cabins with a central restroom and shower house. Top a rise was the main lodge where meals were provided and a trading post with a bowling alley were maintained.

Lustron Homes

The national lakeshore acquired three Lustron homes during its land acquisition process. The Jacob Klien House was located in an endangered habitat. It was moved to the east side of Drake Avenue in Beverly Shores and placed atop a dunes overlooking the lake. The Schulof house located on Lakefront Drive was transferred to the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana

Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana

Indiana Landmarks is America's largest private statewide historic preservation organization. Founded as the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana by Indianapolis pharmaceutical executive Eli Lilly in 1960, the organization is a private non-governmental organization with nearly 11,000 members...

for preservation and it was moved to Stephens Street in Porter, Indiana

Porter, Indiana

. The Powell house remains inaccessible within the park on Lakefront Drive.

Swedish Farmsteads Historic District (pending)

The Swedish Farmsteads of Porter County, Indiana

Porter County, Indiana

are representative of the numerous rural communities settled by a significant ethnic population. They influenced the religious community and social community. Swedish immigration was at its highest from 1840 until 1920. At its height, 1910, it was estimated that 1 out of every 5 Swedes was living in the United States.

Recreational Opportunities & Activities

The park contains 15 miles (24.1 km) of beaches, as well as sand dune

Dune

In physical geography, a dune is a hill of sand built by wind. Dunes occur in different forms and sizes, formed by interaction with the wind. Most kinds of dunes are longer on the windward side where the sand is pushed up the dune and have a shorter "slip face" in the lee of the wind...

s, bog

Bog

A bog, quagmire or mire is a wetland that accumulates acidic peat, a deposit of dead plant material—often mosses or, in Arctic climates, lichens....

s, marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

es, swamp

Swamp

A swamp is a wetland with some flooding of large areas of land by shallow bodies of water. A swamp generally has a large number of hammocks, or dry-land protrusions, covered by aquatic vegetation, or vegetation that tolerates periodical inundation. The two main types of swamp are "true" or swamp...

s, fen

Fen

A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

s, prairie

Prairie

s, rivers, oak savanna

Oak savanna

An oak savanna is a type of savanna, or lightly forested grassland, where oaks are the dominant tree species. These savannas were maintained historically through wildfires set by lightning, grazing, low precipitation, poor soil, and/or fires set by Native Americans...

s, and woodland forests. The park is also noted for its singing sand

Singing sand

Singing sand, whistling sand or barking sand is sand that produces sound. The sound emission may be caused by wind passing over dunes or by walking on the sand.Certain conditions have to come together to create singing sand:...

s. More than 350 species of birds have been observed in the park. It has one of the most diverse plant communities of any unit in the U.S. National Park System with 1418 vascular plant

Vascular plant

Vascular plants are those plants that have lignified tissues for conducting water, minerals, and photosynthetic products through the plant. Vascular plants include the clubmosses, Equisetum, ferns, gymnosperms and angiosperms...

species including 90 threatened or endangered ones. The Indiana Dunes area is unique in that it contains both Arctic and boreal plants (such as the bearberry

Bearberry

Bearberries are three species of dwarf shrubs in the genus Arctostaphylos. Unlike the other species of Arctostaphylos , they are adapted to Arctic and sub-Arctic climates, and have a circumpolar distribution in northern North America, Asia and Europe, one with a small highly disjunctive population...

) alongside desert plants (such as the prickly pear cactus

Opuntia

Opuntia, also known as nopales or paddle cactus , is a genus in the cactus family, Cactaceae.Currently, only prickly pears are included in this genus of about 200 species distributed throughout most of the Americas. Chollas are now separated into the genus Cylindropuntia, which some still consider...

).

First-time visitors to the Lakeshore often go to the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center at U.S. Route 20

U.S. Route 20

and Indiana Route 49, near Porter, Indiana

Porter, Indiana

. This brand-new center (2007) offers standard visitor-center amenities, including a video, brochures, hands-on exhibits, and a gift shop. It is free to the general public.

Camping is available at the Dunewood Campground on U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12

and Broadway, in Beverly Shores

Beverly Shores, Indiana

Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

. The campground includes an RV dump station and two loops of trailer accessible sites (some with pull-through drives). All sites have grills, a picnic table, and access to restrooms with running water and showers. There are a limited number of walk-in sites in the Douglas Loop.

The park provides opportunities for bird watching

Birdwatching

Birdwatching or birding is the observation of birds as a recreational activity. It can be done with the naked eye, through a visual enhancement device like binoculars and telescopes, or by listening for bird sounds. Birding often involves a significant auditory component, as many bird species are...

, camping

Camping

Camping is an outdoor recreational activity. The participants leave urban areas, their home region, or civilization and enjoy nature while spending one or several nights outdoors, usually at a campsite. Camping may involve the use of a tent, caravan, motorhome, cabin, a primitive structure, or no...

, 45 miles (72.4 km) of hiking

Hiking

Hiking is an outdoor activity which consists of walking in natural environments, often in mountainous or other scenic terrain. People often hike on hiking trails. It is such a popular activity that there are numerous hiking organizations worldwide. The health benefits of different types of hiking...

, fishing

Fishing

Fishing is the activity of trying to catch wild fish. Fish are normally caught in the wild. Techniques for catching fish include hand gathering, spearing, netting, angling and trapping....

, swimming, horseback riding

Equestrianism

Equestrianism more often known as riding, horseback riding or horse riding refers to the skill of riding, driving, or vaulting with horses...

, and cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

. Cycling is available on the Calumet Trail

Calumet Trail

The Calumet Trail is an east-west bicycle and multiuse recreational trail in northwestern Indiana's Calumet region, running roughly parallel to U.S...

, a crushed limestone multiuse trail which runs through the eastern section of the park, providing access to the Indiana Dunes State Park

Indiana Dunes State Park

, as well as to the communities of Beverly Shores

Beverly Shores, Indiana

Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

; the Town of Pines

Town of Pines, Indiana

Town of Pines is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 708 at the 2010 census.-Geography:Town of Pines is located at ....

; and Mount Baldy on the edge of Michigan City, Indiana

Michigan City, Indiana

. The park had more than 2.1 million visits in 2007. Rules state not to feed any of the wildlife, including seagulls, deer, or raccoons.
Ranger-Led Programs: Rangers provide free walks and talks throughout the park on a daily basis. The Singing Sands, the official newspaper of the national lakeshore is published quarterly with a listing of Ranger lead activities.

The Chellbergs Had a Farm
Talk with the Animals
Autumn Harvest
Mount Baldy
West Beach Walk

Maple Sugar Time
Fall Fanfaare
Winter Exploration
Potawatomis & Fur Traders
A Grain of Truth
Lake Michigan Alive

Water World
Habitat Hike
Reflections on Snow
Pinhook Bog
Secrets of Succession
Dune SCOPES

Trails

The Indiana Dunes has numerous short hike trails and a few longer distance trails:

Miller Woods Trail is located off Lake Street in Gary's Miller Beach
Miller Beach
Miller Beach is a community on the southernmost shore of Lake Michigan. Originally an independent town first settled in 1851, Miller was annexed by the city of Gary, Indiana in 1918...

community. The trail is fully accessible from a parking lot just north of the Douglas Center for Environmental Cost; Porter County Convention and Rec Commission, 2008
Inland Marsh overlook is a short accessible walk through the treetops to a dune ridge overlook of the vast inland marsh. For a more indepth experiences, the Inland Marsh trail consists of two loops forming a 3 miles (4.8 km) walk around the through the marsh and oak savannas. Both trails start along U.S. 12, just east of the Porter-Lake County Line Road and the West Beach unit of the National Lakeshore.
Succession Trail is located at West Beach. The trail climbs into the high dunes. While mostly on boardwalk and stairways, this can be a difficult climb. You'll experience the changes that lead from an open sandy beach to a heavily wooded dune crest. This trail is about 1 miles (1.6 km) long.
Bailly-Chellberg Trails is a series of interconnected trails. Primarily, it consists of 2-loops through the historic area around the Bailly Homestead
Joseph Bailly Homestead
The Joseph Bailly Homestead, also known as Joseph Bailly Homestead and Cemetery, in Porter, Indiana, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark....

and the Chellberg Farm
Chellberg Farm
Chellberg Farm is an historic farmstead which in 1972 became part of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Chellberg Farm is significant as it represents the ethnic heritage of a nearly forgotten Swedish-American settlement. The farm includes a family home, water house with windmill, chicken...

. Along this 2.5 miles (4 km) trail, you'll be in a second growth forest, where the trees had once been removed for farming or timber harvest. Included along the north spur is a trip the Bailly Cemetery.
The Little Calumet River Trail offers an opportunity to visit a restored prairie and the flood plain of the East Arm Little Calumet River. Both represent the land before settlers arrived. This 2.2 miles (3.5 km) trail can be reached from the Bailly-Chellburg Trails by walking west from the Homestead to Howe Road, then following it across the East Arm Little Calumet River and up through the wetland overlook and parking lot for Mnoke Priarie. This trail brings you back near the north end of the 2-loops of the Bailly Chellberg Trails. Otherwise, you can drive around to Howe Road and park in the mentioned parking area and walk from there.

Cowles Bog Trail is reached off of North Mineral Springs Road. Parking is to the right (east), when you reach the guard shack for Dune Acres. This 5 miles (8 km) loop is one of the most rugged trails in the park. You begin with a long level walk skirting the wetlands of the Cowles Bog
Cowles Bog
Cowles Bog is named for Henry Chandler Cowles of the University of Chicago. Dr. Cowles is credited with the creation of the concept of Ecology. It was here at Cowles Bog that Dr. Cowles did his pioneering work. The bog is a National Natural Landmark. Cowles Bog is more than 8,000 years old and...

complex and the dune ridges to the north. Following the first fork to the north, you being climbing through the dunes until you reach Lake Michigan. Remember, you have to climb back up this dune if you go down to the lake. This is one of the least crowded areas of the park. The return is like the walk out, but you can take the west part of the loop. Again through the dunes, covered with northern white cedars, black oaks and a variety of trees. You'll see inter-dunal wetlands, the open beach and again, you'll reach the long flat Cowles Bog wetland complex. To complete the full 5 miles (8 km), you need to continue west around the wetlands to the parking area at Mineral Sprroad crossing, with parking available at Mineral Springs Road, Dune Park Station (S.R. 49 and U.S. 12), Calumet Dunes Trail park (Kemil Road at U.S. 12) and at U.S. 12, where it crosses the South Shore Tracks, just west of Michigan City.
The Calumet Dune Trail is fully accessible from the Calumet Dunes Interpretive Center (Kemil Road at U.S. 12). The trail is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) long and fully paved. Here, you'll see a mature wetland forest.
The far western end of the Calumet Dune Trail links to the Ly-co-ki-we Horse and Hiking Trail. The Horse trail is 6.4 miles (10.3 km) long and is accessible by horses and hikers from its own parking lot at U.S. 20 just west of Kemil Road. You must bring your own horse.

Burnham Plan trails

The Marquette Plan is called a "Lakeshore Investment Strategy" for Indiana. It is composed of two key elements. A 50 miles (80.5 km) trail is planned to cross Indiana to link Illinois, Indiana and Michigan communities along the Lake Michigan shore. There are planned both land trails for bicycles and hikers and a 'blue water' trail' for kayakers.

Water Trail
Indiana Paddling Association's in conjunction with the NIRPC and the public lands along Indiana's Lake Michigan shore have developed a 45 miles (72.4 km) water trail from Chicago's Northerly Island to Michigan City's Millennium Plaza.

Long Distance Hike/Bike Trail
There will be links to major parks and a wide variety of cultural and natural sites. The 9 miles (14.5 km) Marquette Trail will eventually connect the eastern and western segments of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The 3 miles (4.8 km) Porter Brickyard Trail will open in the summer of 2009 as part of the Burnham Plan Centennial. It will link several community hike/bike trails to the Calumet Hike/Bike trail creating a link between the Lake County communities and Michigan City. Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) is guiding the work with assistance from local governments, the National Park Service, private landowners and the American Planning Association.

Lake Michigan

West Beach, located adjacent to U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12

and County Line Road lies on the border of Gary

Gary, Indiana

and Portage, Indiana

Portage, Indiana

Portage is a city in Portage Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States. The population was 36,828 as of the 2010 census. It is the largest city in Porter County, and third largest in Northwest Indiana.-Geography:...

. It is a geographically separated section of the Lakeshore that is preserved as a piece of public beach access and an example of the same theme of plant succession as is found in Cowles Bog. This section of the Lakeshore displays most of the successive stages of Indiana Dunes biotic progression, from open beach sands to mature Eastern Black Oak forest. A new (2007) West Beach Succession Trail (0.7 miles (1.1 km) in length) features different stages of plant succession in the beach and inland dunes.

The Portage Lakeview and Riverwalk was completed in 2009 as a project of the City of Portage, Indiana

Portage, Indiana

. The infrastructure was partially damaged by the August 2009 tornado that also damaged Chesterton Middle School and several Chesterton

Chesterton, Indiana

homes.

Porter Beach, located north of U.S. Route 12

U.S. Route 12

, is a small, public sand beach within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The surrounding area is residential and is governed by the town of Porter

Porter, Indiana

Kemil Road Beach
Lakeview
Central Avenue Beach
Mt Baldy

Public Programs

Maple Sugar Time
One weekend every spring, you can experience the making Maple Sugar. You'll see how the Indians gathered the sap and learn maple trees, and pioneer sugaring. Visit the sugar shack to watch the sap boil down into maple sugar and syrup.

Kids Fun at the Visitor Center
Every Sunday afternoon, a Ranger meets with kids to explore the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center. It is an afternoon of fun kids activities and stories.

Paul H. Douglas Center Open House
During the spring and the fall, families can a park ranger and explore Miller Woods. Each month 1:00 PM to 4:00 PM at the Paul H. Douglas Center there will be a different program.

Threatened Lake Michigan
Several times a year, you can join a ranger at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center to explore some of the greatest threats facing Lake Michigan. From 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM you'll learn about the spiny water flea, round goby, and zebra mussel and their impact on Lake Michigan. You can learn how to prevent more invaders to the lake.

Spring Blooms Hike
Meet a ranger at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center and carpool to the week's best trail where you will explore the forest for wildflowers and other signs of spring. Several times each spring, between 1:00 PM to 3:00 PM a group will explore the park's wildflowers.

Field Trip Programs

Discover
Explore the diversity of the park using your senses. This program is offered Year-round except during Autumn Harvest and Maple Sugar Time. It is appropriate for Preschool through 3rd grade.

Talk With the Animals
Puppets tell the story of life in dune country. In nice weather, students a hike the trail after the show. The program is available all year and is appropriate for Preschool and 1st graders.

Autumn Harvest
A chance to experience life on a farm during harvest season. Visit the Chellberg, turn-of-the-century, farm; gather sorghum, press cider, help with chores or play farm games.
Program availability: September 25-October 10
It is appropriate for All grades

Maple Sugar Time
Experience the making of Maple Sugar. Learn about "horse-power" and maple trees. Students will experience the Native American and pioneer methods before watching the sap boil down in the sugar shack to pure maple sugar and syrup. Available each spring, this program is appropriate for K through 5th grade.

Fall Fanfare
Students will learn about the change of the seasons. The cooler weather and short days bring about changes as plants and animals prepare for winter. Available in October and November, the program is appropriate for 1st through 6th graders.

Winter Exploration
The class will explore the winter woods on a nature hike. The program begins with a slide show on animal and plant adaptations to winter. If there is sufficient snow, Snowshoes will be provided for a hike in the woods. Available in January and February, the program is appropriate for 4th through 12th grade.

Indians and Fur Traders
Learn about American Indian lifestyles and the fur trade. The program goes back to the early lifestyles of the American Indians, fur traders, and voyageurs. Available all years, the program is appropriate for 3rd through 8th grade.

A Grain of Truth
As a class, the students will explore dunes and observe how winds and powerful waves work to create and erode moving sand dunes. There is a hike in the foredunes and down to the beach see first hand processes of dune building, and erosion. Availabile during spring, summer, and fall, the program is appropriate for 4th through 8th grade.

Lake Michigan Alive
Students will learn about the diversity of life issues affecting Lake Michigan. Through play acting and games, they will learn about the food chain. View preserved sea lamprey and trout. Students are encouraged to help care for the Great Lakes. The program is available all year, as it is primarily indoors. There is a short trip to the lake. It is appropriate for 4th through 12th grade.

Water World
A true field trip, students explore a wetland. Armed with nets and pans, the will discover the diversity of pond life and learn the importance of our water resources. The program can be extended for an in-depth experience, with a 3-hour hike to Lake Michigan. Subject to weather, the program is available from April to October and is appropriate for 4th through 12th grades.

Habitat Hike
Visit many of the habitats in the lakeshore. Students will get a chance to see many of the 1,400 species of plants in the lakeshore. Visit forest, dunes, swamp, and sand prairie, while learning about the environmental factors that affect plant survival. Available all year, except during Autumn Harvest and Maple Sugar Time

Reflections on Snow
A cross-country skiing journey through winter habitats. . Indoor activities include learning about winter track and winter survival through predation. If there is adequate snow, a Ski hike will take the class out to experince the winter landscape. Availability only in January and February. The program is appropriate for 5th to 12th grade.

Pinhook Bog
Hike the unique world of a bog. Students will learn to identify rare, insecting-eating plants and experience a habitats created by the glaciers. There is an opportunity to walk on a floating mat of sphagnum moss. Available from Mid-April through mid-November, the program is appropriate for 6th through 12th grade.

Professional Development

DUNES EDUCATOR INSTITUTES

During the academic year, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and the Dunes Learning Center (DLC) provide a variety of professional development opportunities for teacher in the K-12 setting. Workshops feature experts in various fields of study, hands-on activities and adventures within the national lakeshore. Illinois and Indiana teachers can receive continuing education units (CEUs) or continuing recertification units (CRUs) for each workshops. Those teacher wishing to earn graduate credit can do so through Indiana University Northwest and Chicago State University. Workshops are held at the DLC.

Accessibility

Indiana Dunes is working to provide access to beach areas. Access to the waters of Lake Michigan is a challenging problem. Presently, four beaches are considered accessible: West Beach, Lake View Picnic area, Dunbar Beach, and Porter Beach.

Fully Accessible Accessible parking and restroom services are available throughout the park. A standard wheelchair is available for loan at the Paul H. Douglas Center.

West Beach Bathhouse,
Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education,
Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center. Hearing Assist devices are available in the theater.

Festivals

Duneland Harvest Festival

The Duneland Harvest Festival occurs each fall on the 3rd weekend of September. It Is a time to celebrate the harvest

Harvest

Harvest is the process of gathering mature crops from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper...

and to learn about life at the beginning of the 20th Century. The main festival grounds are around the Chellberg Home

Chellberg Farm

Chellberg Farm is an historic farmstead which in 1972 became part of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Chellberg Farm is significant as it represents the ethnic heritage of a nearly forgotten Swedish-American settlement. The farm includes a family home, water house with windmill, chicken...

within the National Lakeshore

United States National Lakeshore

. Craft

Craft

A craft is a branch of a profession that requires some particular kind of skilled work. In historical sense, particularly as pertinent to the Medieval history and earlier, the term is usually applied towards people occupied in small-scale production of goods.-Development from the past until...

demonstrations show how apples were turned into cider and how sorghum

Sorghum

Sorghum is a genus of numerous species of grasses, one of which is raised for grain and many of which are used as fodder plants either cultivated or as part of pasture. The plants are cultivated in warmer climates worldwide. Species are native to tropical and subtropical regions of all continents...

is crushed into a sweet syrup

Syrup

In cooking, a syrup is a thick, viscous liquid consisting primarily of a solution of sugar in water, containing a large amount of dissolved sugars but showing little tendency to deposit crystals...

. Other crafts include wood carving and making utensils. The different herbs, candle making, and sheep shearing. Vendors provide food from the early 20th century, including caramel apple

Caramel apple

Caramel apples or taffy apples are created by dipping or rolling apples-on-a-stick in hot caramel, sometimes then rolling them in nuts or other small savories or confections, and allowing them to cool...

s, sweet corn, dripping in butter and a variety of ciders and cookies. Music is not forgotten. Musicians playing traditional songs and instruments entertain throughout the day. Most years, visitors will have an opportunity to see and learn traditional dances.

Maple Sugar Time Festival

The Maple Sugar Time Festival occurs each spring in late March. This festival's success is highly dependent on the weather. The nights have to be cold and the day's warm. This creates the up and down cycle of sap in the maple

Maple

Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...

trees. The festival shows how maple sap was collected by the Potawatomi

Potawatomi

The Potawatomi are a Native American people of the upper Mississippi River region. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a member of the Algonquian family. In the Potawatomi language, they generally call themselves Bodéwadmi, a name that means "keepers of the fire" and that was applied...

Indians, the early settlers and the modern maple syrup industry.

BioBlitz 2009
May 15 and 16, the park hosted an All Taxa Biological Diversity survey. In a 24 hour period, 2000 students and thousands of additional volunteers surveyed the park for every available living species. "We have inventoried 890 species", said John Francis, vice president of research, conservation and exploration for National Geographic in Washington, D.C. The tally at the close of the 24 hours was 890 species, including 26 amphibians and reptiles, 101 birds, 18 fish, 27 fungi, 11 mammals, 410 plants, and 178 insects. The talley had risen to 1200 unique species by June 1.

Facilities

Dunewood Campground is located in Beverly Shores
Beverly Shores, Indiana
Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

, south of U.S. Route 12
U.S. Route 12
U.S. Route 12 or US 12 is an east–west United States highway, running from Grays Harbor on the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Washington, to downtown Detroit, for almost . As a thoroughfare, it has mostly been supplanted by I-90 and I-94, but remains an important road for local travel.The...

at Broadway. The facility has 78 campsites (53 drive-in some drive through and 25 walk-in). Both the Douglass and Mather loops have restrooms with showers and a wheelchair accessible site. The campground is open from April 1 through October 31. There is a fee.
Calumet Dune Interpretive Center is an interpretive program center for scheduled programs and campground programs that have to be moved due to the rain. It is located south of U.S. 12 in Beverly Shores
Beverly Shores, Indiana
Beverly Shores is a town in Pine Township, Porter County, Indiana, United States, about east of downtown Chicago. The population was 613 at the 2010 census.-History:...

.
Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center is located at 1420 Munson Road, just off State Route 49
Indiana State Road 49
State Road 49 in the U.S. State of Indiana is a state highway in northwest Indiana. It runs from just north of Chesterton at the intersection with U.S. Route 12 south to a rural interchange 10 miles northeast of Rensselaer with State Road 14...

south of the intersection with U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20
U.S. Route 20 is an east–west United States highway. As the "0" in its route number implies, US 20 is a coast-to-coast route. Spanning , it is the longest road in the United States, and the route sparsely parallels Interstate 90...

. The visitor center includes exhibits on the national lakeshore and a display of artwork created in the lakeshore. The center is jointly operated by the National Park Service
National Park Service
The National Park Service is the U.S. federal agency that manages all national parks, many national monuments, and other conservation and historical properties with various title designations...

and the Porter County Visitor and Recreation Commission (PCCRVC). The visitor center is open daily, except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years.
Bailly/Chellberg Contact Station is located in Porter, on Mineral Springs Road, just north of U.S. 20. It is closed most of the year, except during festivals. The parking area provides access to the Bailly Homestead and the Chellberg Farm.
Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center or the Dune Learning Center is located on Howe Road in Porter. It is west of the Bailly/Chellberg Contact Station and is reached from U.S. 20 by passing the Bailly/Chellberg facility and going around the block to Howe Road. The Dunes Learning Center is an over night environmental experience for school classes. It is run by a partner of the lakeshore.
Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk is the newest facility at the national lakeshore. It is located along the Burns Waterway, tucked next to U.S. Steel's, Midwest Plant. It can be reached off of Indiana State Road 249
Indiana State Road 249
State Road 249 in the U.S. state of Indiana is a 2.4-mile connector highway in Portage in northwest Indiana. It exists to connect U.S. Route 12 and U.S. Route 20 with Interstate 94, and also to provide easy access to both highways from the steel mills and their Port of Indiana...

by following the signs past the steel mill. The area offers a fishing pier, a riverwalk and a hike bike trail through the restored dunescape. There is beach access and a 3500 square feet (325.2 m²) pavilion.
West Beach Bathhouse is located in Portage north of U.S. Route 12
U.S. Route 12
U.S. Route 12 or US 12 is an east–west United States highway, running from Grays Harbor on the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Washington, to downtown Detroit, for almost . As a thoroughfare, it has mostly been supplanted by I-90 and I-94, but remains an important road for local travel.The...

on County Line Road. West Beach has ample parking, picnic shelters, and a bathhouse with showers. The bathhouse includes changing rooms, restrooms, and a lifeguarded beach. The Dune Succession Trails, West Beach Trail and the Long Lake Trail are all located in the West Beach area.
Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education is located in the far west end of the park, in the Miller Beach
Miller Beach
Miller Beach is a community on the southernmost shore of Lake Michigan. Originally an independent town first settled in 1851, Miller was annexed by the city of Gary, Indiana in 1918...

community of the City of Gary
Gary, Indiana
Gary is a city in Lake County, Indiana, United States. The city is in the southeastern portion of the Chicago metropolitan area and is 25 miles from downtown Chicago. The population is 80,294 at the 2010 census, making it the seventh-largest city in the state. It borders Lake Michigan and is known...

. It is just north of U.S. 20 and U.S. 12. The Education Center provides classrooms for programs on environmental topics. Participation is usually during a schedule program for schools and local organizations.

Gallery

Weather Conditions & Warnings

The primary feature of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is Lake Michigan

Lake Michigan

. The lake brings with it several weather related conditions that can create threats to the enjoyment of the area.

Winter: Winter months bring the risk of shelf ice
Shelf ice
Shelf ice can refer to the ice that forms when a portion of a lake surface freezes. It is often then washed upon the shore. This is common within the Great Lakes.-Formation:...

. This is a condition where the winter winds push ice from Lake Michigan onto the beaches. As the cold depends, the ice can build up into long ridges creating an arctic dunescape. Much of this ice is floating. It may be dangerous to walk on the ice as there can be air pockets into which you can sink. Rescue is extremely difficult.
Summer: During the summer months, rip current
Rip current
A rip current, commonly referred to by the misnomer rip tide, is a strong channel of water flowing seaward from near the shore, typically through the surf line. Typical flow is at 0.5 metres per second , and can be as fast as 2.5 metres per second...

s can occur in Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan
Lake Michigan is one of the five Great Lakes of North America and the only one located entirely within the United States. It is the second largest of the Great Lakes by volume and the third largest by surface area, after Lake Superior and Lake Huron...

. This occurs suddenly and can sweep a swimmer out far out into the lake. Rip currents are most prevalent on days with a strong north wind. Rip currents are created when masses of water is pushed against the shoreline by a north wind. The mass of water becomes trapped between the beach and the first sandbar. As the wind continues, the volume of water increases until weight of incoming water and the mass of the sandbar are unable push back the growing volume of water behind the sandbar. Then, the trapped water creates a narrow channel through the sandbar. The water rushes back into the lake forming a river in the lake. Anything or anyone in the current is taken out into the lake.

Working in the National Lakeshore

Working in the Dunes

Firefighters
- Prescribed fire is used to restore historic landscapes, restore ecosystems, eradicate invasive species, and enhance biodiversity. Trained firefighters, biological technicians, fire managers, and engine bosses are needed to insure public safety and to achieve the desired goals.
National Park Ranger
National Park Ranger
National Park Service Rangers are among the uniformed employees charged with protecting and preserving areas set aside in the National Park System by the United States Congress and/or the President of the United States...
- Park Rangers with specialized skills in police work provide for public safety and protect the cultural and natural resources of the national lakeshore.
- Park Rangers trained in communications and teaching are the key individuals working with the public. The provide walks, talks, campfire programs, and are the public face of the park. Interpretive Park Ranger provide educational opportunities for local schools and school age kids.
Historians and cultural resource specialist
- The National Lakeshore employs individuals with history
  Historian
  A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the study of all history in time. If the individual is...
  
  knowledge, historic architect
  Architect
  An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...
  
  , and curator
  Curator
  A curator is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, a curator or keeper of a cultural heritage institution is a content specialist responsible for an institution's collections and involved with the interpretation of heritage material...
  
  ial specialist. These individuals manage the historic structures, archeologial artifacts and historic collections.
Biologist and natural resource specialist
- The National Lakeshore employees a variety of biological science specialist. They work on wetland restoration, endangered species protection, water quality, and a host of other wildlife and plant related programs.
Administrative specialist
- Each park unit requires are variety of administrative specialist who manage park funds, manage the personnel system, purchase supplies and materials, as well as maintain the park's information systems.
Facility Maintenance
- The National Lakeshore has numerous buildings, roads and trails that need to be kept in usable and safe condition. It is the trades and craft people of the park that manage these operations. Master carpenters, electricians, plumbers, along with unskill laborers and journeymen keep building safe and operable. Heavy equipment operators, tractor operators and unskill youth conservation corp enrollees manage the grounds, roads and trails.

Volunteers
The National Lakeshore provides a variety of programs through individuals who volunteer their time and energy to the park and its visitors. Over the years, the annual report of Volunteer In Parks has shown significant contributions. Volunteer opportunities are list in a nationwide website called America’s Natural and Cultural Resources Volunteer Portal.

2005

This year docents led more than 100 environmental education programs for more than 2,500 students. The Junior Ranger and Advanced Junior Ranger participants worked over 2,300 hours, conducting exotic species removal, native seed collection, habitat restoration, and various cultural resource projects. A great crew of volunteers hosted a well-received public program titled "Gathering at the Calumet." Volunteers also worked approximately 2,000 hours during the Maple Sugar Time and Duneland Harvest festivals. Throughout the summer, volunteers enabled the park to keep several historic buildings open to the public during the Summer Open-House programs.

Artist-in-Residence is a unique volunteer program where a variety of visual artist spend 2–4 weeks in the park. In addition to doing their painting, sculpting, or other art, these volunteers display their works and provide public programs about their art.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

History

Geology of the Lakeshore

Flora and fauna

Natural areas

Historic areas

Recreational Opportunities & Activities

Trails

Lake Michigan

Public Programs

Field Trip Programs

Professional Development

Accessibility

Festivals

Facilities

Weather Conditions & Warnings

Working in the National Lakeshore

See also

People Associated with the Dunes

National park units in Indiana

Further reading

External links