INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL LAKESHORE

INDIANA

Sitting on the southern edge of Lake Michigan, the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is a blend of natural wonders, educational and scientific opportunities, historical interest and recreational splendor that attracts nearly two million visitors each year.

The last glacial period set the stage for this unique and fascinating landscape of wind-blown sand dunes interrupted by marshes and shallow ponds. The Little Calumet River winds along what was once the bottom of the ancient Lake Chicago that developed behind the glacier's terminal moraine. Today, the park not only protects much of the river, but also a tamarack bog that sits on top of the moraine. This convergence of so many different landscapes helps explain why this relatively small park ranks seventh among all National Parks in native plant diversity.

A legacy of more than 100 years of research and education continues today. In partnership with the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center, which operates a residential education center in the park, the Great Lakes Research and Education Center, and Lake County Solid Waste Management District, Indiana Dunes provides environmental education programs to more than 40,000 students annually.

This July, the park in partnership with the EPA's Lake Guardian Research Vessel, will host a second "Great Lakes Institute." Educators attending the event will have an unparalleled opportunity to witness, first-hand, current research projects taking place aboard the vessel during the six-day workshop.

The National Lakeshore's website also features several fun-filled learning activities available even to those who cannot visit, including the "Web Ranger Challenge" that received top honors from the National Association for Interpretation in 2003.

DID YOU KNOW

• Five homes from the 1933 World's Fair are within the National Lakeshore. These homes, and others, were brought from Chicago by barge across Lake Michigan just after the fair. Through a partnership with the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana, these homes are being restored at little or no cost to the National Park Service.
• Octave Chanute's pioneering glider experiments in the Dunes of Indiana in 1896 influenced the Wright Brothers whose first flight came five years later.
• The Indiana Dunes has been called the birthplace of Plant Ecology. While that may be a bit of an overstatement, in 1896 Dr. Henry Chandler Cowles began his pioneering work on plant succession and, as he called it, "the mutual relations between plants and their environment."
• The Lakeshore has a sister park in Poland, Kampinos National Park. (For more information see: www.nps.gov/indu/sisterparks.htm)
• The park includes an historic Swedish immigrant community highlighted by the restored and operational Chellberg Farm and the Bailly Homestead, a National Historic Landmark.

DON'T MISS ATTRACTIONS

• Mount Baldy, better known as "that huge sand dune that I climbed as a kid," continues to draw people back to the lakeshore. Overlooking Lake Michigan and standing nearly 130 feet high, Mount Baldy is the largest of the living (moving) dunes within the park.
• The Duneland Harvest Festival, September 18 & 19, 2004, and Maple Sugar Time Festival, March 5 & 6 and 12 & 13, 2005. These two festivals, co-sponsored by the Friends of Indiana Dunes, celebrate life in the dunes from early native days through agricultural settlement.
• Three National Natural Landmarks (Pinhook Bog, Indiana Dunes State Nature Preserve, and Cowles Bog) and one National Historic Landmark (Bailly Homestead).
• Relaxing sunsets along the 12 miles of sandy beaches on Lake Michigan.

NATIONAL PARK SERVICE PRIORITIES

Restoring and managing natural habitat remains a major undertaking. This work consists of the removal of hundreds of vacant structures from the park, the eradication of invasive species, and the restoration of wetlands prairies and oak savannah habitats. Prescribed fire has been a particularly important tool in helping to restore and maintain critical habitat for the endangered Karner blue butterfly.

The Nelson farmhouse, a Sears catalog house, is undergoing a complete restoration and will be used to house visiting scientists at the National Lakeshore's Great Lakes Research and Education Center. The center is one of only thirteen programs of its kind throughout the country.

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LINKS:

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore»

Partnering & Managing for Excellence Report»

Previously Featured Parks»