50 Fun Facts About Indiana Dunes National Park

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

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

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

It had been the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore since 1966; the change came in an appropriations act signed on February 15.

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

Deputy Director Paul Daniel Smith testified the change broke naming conventions; Congress did it anyway in a 2019 appropriations act.

Which Chicago botanist's 1899 dune plant study launched the movement to save the dunes?

His work on plant succession helped found the science of ecology; a bog and a bay in the park bear his name.

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

He visited Warming in Copenhagen in 1905, and his translation of the term helped popularise the word ecology in the United States.

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

The idea stalled for half a century; the state park opened in 1926 and the national lakeshore only in 1966.

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

Its sand went to Ball Brothers and Hemingray in Muncie to make Ball Blue canning jars and Hemingray Blue insulators; a power plant stands there now.

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

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

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

The 56 acres in Porter County were bought with money raised in a nationwide campaign.

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

An economist and University of Chicago professor, he served in the Senate from 1949 to 1967; a park trail and education center carry his name.

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

Industry wanted a Port of Indiana on the lake; the deal gave Indiana its harbour and conservationists their park.

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

Trampling killed the marram grass that held it, so it now creeps south toward its own parking lot; climbing the summit is banned except on ranger tours.

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

Buried black oaks rot away and leave hollow shafts under unsteady sand; the child was dug out alive after three hours in an 11-foot pit.

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

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

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

They were part of the Homes of Tomorrow exhibition and now stand in Beverly Shores; four are restored and the House of Tomorrow awaits its turn.

How were the Century of Progress houses moved from Chicago to the Indiana shore?

They were rolled off the barge on telephone poles onto a timber crib built out into the lake.

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

Trained in maths, astronomy and classics, she lived in a shack she called Driftwood, and the press coverage of her helped rally support for a state park.

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

His homestead is federally landmarked; his family cemetery sits on a sandy bluff half a mile north, its plots later filled with sand by his granddaughter.

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

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

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

A national financial panic killed it the summer it was half built; a forest fire in the 1850s finished off what the lumber scavengers left.

How many species of vascular plants does the park have, ranking it eighth in the whole park system?

Arctic and boreal plants like bearberry grow alongside desert species such as prickly pear cactus.

Which two federally listed plants grow in the park?

Populations of each rare plant are estimated at only 100 to 120 individuals.

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

The Indiana bat, eastern massasauga rattlesnake and rufa red knot are also on the federal list.

Which two predators were documented returning to the dunes in 2011 and 2018 respectively?

Nearly 370 bird species have also been logged in or passing through the dunes by Indiana Audubon.

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

It formed about 14,000 years ago as the ice melted, is famous for pitcher plants and can be visited only on ranger-led tours.

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

It is a complex of bog, fen, marsh, swamp, wet meadow and pond drained by Dunes Creek to the state park beach.

Which 40,000-year-old glacial ridge is the dominant landform behind the Indiana Dunes?

Two younger moraines nest inside its arc; each dammed meltwater and left a shoreline and dune ridge as it breached.

Which is the oldest visible ancient shore of the lake, a sand ridge followed by Ridge Road?

The Tolleston and Glenwood shorelines lie further south and are much harder to spot on the ground.

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

Much of it floats, and rescue from a fall through is extremely difficult; in summer the danger switches to rip currents on north-wind days.

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

Water piles up behind the first sandbar until it breaks through in a narrow channel that sweeps swimmers out.

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

Some 574 plant species have been found on its 430 acres, which the state DNR manages as a nature preserve.

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

It is pronounced roughly mno-ca and lies along Beam Street in the central part of the park.

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

One was moved atop a dune in Beverly Shores, one went to a preservation group in Porter, and one still sits inaccessible on Lakefront Drive.

Roughly how many visits does the park get each year?

Its closeness to Chicago makes it one of the busiest units for its size; metal detectors and fossil collecting are banned.

How many miles of hiking trail does the park offer?

They range from the Paul H. Douglas Trail through Miller Woods to the steep boardwalk Succession Trail at West Beach.

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

Two of its nine miles pass through the grove, which protects a rare bur oak savanna and ravines above Lake George.

Which fossils are visitors strictly forbidden to collect from the park's beaches?

The stony stems of these ancient sea lilies wash up along the beaches; feeding gulls, deer and raccoons is banned too.

The 2009 BioBlitz at the park counted how many species in 24 hours?

Some 2,000 students and thousands of volunteers took part; the tally rose to 1,200 unique species by June.

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

Mount Holden and Mount Jackson complete the trio, all inside a nature preserve reachable only on foot.

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

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

Which body of water at Hammond forms the western border of the dunes?

There the longshore drift runs down the western shore, pushing sand spits eastward, the mirror image of the eastern shore.

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

They came in 1976, 1980, 1986 and 1992, and the park now covers 15,349 acres in three counties.

Where is the park's Dunewood Campground?

It has two trailer loops, an RV dump station and a few walk-in sites in the Douglas Loop.

The Bailly Homestead was designated what in 1962?

The trader's last home, adapted from his 1830s retirement house, still stands on the site of his 1822 trading post.

How tall is Mount Baldy, one of the tallest dunes on Lake Michigan's southern shore?

It creeps inland at about four feet a year, which is why it is called a living dune.

How many miles of beach does the park contain?

Beyond the beaches it protects bogs, fens, prairies, oak savannas and woodland forests.

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

The park also has one of the most diverse plant communities in the whole National Park System.

On which commuter railroad do 'Rail Rangers' give onboard park programs on select Saturdays?

The programs run between Millennium Station in Chicago and South Bend in partnership with the American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation.

The park's main visitor centre near Porter is named after which dunes activist?

It sits at the junction of US Route 20 and Indiana Route 49; the Douglas name went to the environmental education centre in Miller Woods.

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

Later ridges from the Nipissing period, about 3,000 years ago, form the ridge-and-swale topography of Miller Woods.