News Release

It’s Almost Maple Time at the National Park

Date: February 23, 2023

INDIANA DUNES NATIONAL PARK: Spring is on its way and that means it’s Maple Sugar Time at Indiana Dunes National Park’s historic Chellberg Farm. This family-friendly festival on March 11 & 12, from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm, is free to attend thanks to the generous support of the Friends of Indiana Dunes, Inc. and the suspension of entrance fees for the weekend.

Rangers and volunteers will be located along the farm trail to show how Native Americans first boiled maple sap into sugar and how early settlers used large iron kettles to make syrup. Stop by the sugar shack where sap is still boiled down the way the Chellberg family did it back in the 1930s. Kids can learn how to tap a tree at the Maple Fun Zone and can meet some of the farm animals while enjoying a maple syrup snow cone at the Friends of Indiana Dunes booth.

Pure maple syrup and related products will be available for purchase in the farmhouse and food trucks will be selling maple glazed pork belly sandwiches and maple-flavored gelato atop waffles.  

For more information on the festival, call [phone] or visit our website, and our Facebook page. To join the Friends of Indiana Dunes and help support the Indiana Dunes National and State Parks, go to https://dunefriends.org. The Friends are an all-volunteer organization that has supported the national park since 1982. Many of their members volunteer at the farm during the festival and throughout the year. 

Chellberg Farm parking lot is located at 618 North Mineral Springs Road between U.S. Highway 20 and U.S. Highway 12 in Porter, Indiana.  

www.nps.gov 

Indiana Dunes National Park is one of more than 400 units of the National Park System ranging from Yellowstone to the Statue of Liberty. Located in Northwest Indiana, the park includes 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline and 15,000 acres of biodiverse beaches, woods, prairies, and marshes. Up to 3 million visitors come to the Indiana Dunes each year.