March 6, 1976: Park Establishment Preserves Natural Laboratory Dunes National lakeshore Stems From Work of Decade

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 6, 1976.

Park Establishment Preserves Natural Laboratory

Dunes National lakeshore Stems From Work of Decade

By J.R. WHITEHOUSE

National Lakeshore Supt.

IN 1916, Steven Tyng Mather, the first director of the newly created National Park Service, recommended the establishment of a national park on the south shore of Lake Michigan in the area known as Indiana Dunes. The region is an unusual complex of exceptional sand dunes, marshes, bogs and sand beaches.

In geologic times, melting glacial ice created a huge lake, whose waters lapped against the shore, creating a prominent ridge, known as the Calumet Beach ridge. This natural feature is evident just north of U.S. 12 from Michigan City to Gary, in the form of the oldest dunes in the region. As the water of prehistoric Lake Michigan receded, waves and winds created new dunes. Between these dunes and the ridge, an alluvial plain developed into marshes and bogs. Finally, as Lake Michigan came into being in its present form, wind action created foredunes that rise to heights of 200 feet.

Dr. H.C. Cowles and other biologists of 50 to 70 years ago developed theories of succession and plant distribution based on observations in this area. Their theories, propounded before the term “ecology” became a household word, are today’s natural laws for the science of ecology. These circumstances, alone, have made the Indiana Dunes internationally famous. The themes and evidences of plant succession will provide an outstanding interpretive opportunity for National Lakeshore naturalists and visitors of the future.

JOSEPH BAILLY, a French Canadian, was the first settler in northwestern Indiana. He built a trading post along the Little Calumet River in 1822. Although somewhat altered, some of the structures still remain. The homestead is located within the Lakeshore region and offers outstanding potential for historic interpretation to visitors.

It was not until 1923 that Indiana Dunes State Park, encompassing 2,200 acres of dunes and marshland and three miles of beach, was established.

The National Park Service, during its Great Lakes Shoreline Recreation Area Survey in 1957-58, identified the Indiana dunes as possessing exceptional value. The Advisory Board on National Park Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments supported this proposal in 1958 and in subsequent meetings in 1959, 1960, 1963 and 1965.

Located adjacent to Gary and Michigan City and only 35 miles from Chicago, the lakeshore presents a rare opportunity to improve the environment of millions of crowded city dwellers and to insure the enjoyment of this unusual area for future generations.

ABOUT SEVEN MILLION people today live within a 50-mile radius of the Indiana Dunes. It is predicted that the population living within a 100-mile radius will reach 12 million within 15 years.

With the 1905 beginning of the Gary industrial developments, the area was plunged deep in a struggle between recreational, residential and industrial interests. Location, terrain and resources were favorable for all, but space was insufficient to supply the maximum needs of many. Before any federal action could be taken, World War I intervened and two communities, Ogden Dunes and Dune Acres, became solidly established in the heart of the region.

Sen. Paul H. Douglas of Illinois, on May 3, 1961, introduced to the 87th Congress a bill “to provide for the preservation of the Indiana Dunes and related areas.” On Oct. 21, 1963, Sen. Henry M. Jackson introduced a similar bill on behalf of himself and Sens. Douglas, Clinton P. Anderson, Vance Harke, Birch E. Bayh and others.

At the beginning of the 89th Congress, bills were introduced by Congressman Roush of Indiana and on Jan. 9 Sen. Jackson introduced Senate Bill 360 which was passed by the Senate on June 21, 1965. The resulting Public law 89-761 of Nov. 5, 1966, provided for the establishment of Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. This act authorized the appropriation of $27,900,000 for the acquisition of land and property. It provided that homeowners could, under certain conditions, retain use of their property for up to 25 years. The National lakeshore consists of approximately 6,000 acres, which, combined with the State park, provides a recreational facility of 8,200 acres.

THE PURPOSE of the act was “to preserve for the educational, inspirational, and recreational use of the public certain portions of the Indiana Dunes and other areas of scenic scientific and historic interest and recreational value.”

A Citizens Advisory Commission was established to offer advice or recommendations for the Secretary of Interior on matters relating to the Lakeshore. The Secretary of Interior was authorized to formally establish the National Lakeshore whenever, in his opinion, sufficient acreage was acquired to be efficiently administrable.

On Sept. 17, 1972, Secretary of Interior Rogers C. B. Morton officially established Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in a ceremony at the lakefront attended by Mrs. Julie Nixon Eisenhower, the Indiana Congressional delegation, and members of many citizen groups, including Save the Dunes Council, which had worked diligently over many years for that objective.

The National Park Service, in carrying out its mandate for the management of this area, has purchased and removed more than 300 structures from the Lakeshore area. Many more residences have been purchased and are being occupied by the former owners under the “reservation in use” provision of the act.

A SMALL BUT DEDICATED staff is engaged in providing environmental education and interpretive programs for visitors from an improvised Visitor Center in a former church building located at Kemil Road and U.S. 12. Temporary parking facilities have been constructed in three locations to provide visitor access to the beach. Horseback and hiking trails have been constructed. Park Rangers provide protection for the visitors and the fragile natural resources.

Intensive long-range planning is underway to assure that future developments are consistent with the intent of the legislation and appropriate for the needs of visitors now and in future generations.

Extensive research is being conducted both by NPS and scientists from local universities to assure that sufficient information is available for adequate management and protection for the area’s fragile natural resources.

Visitation has increased from 8,000 in 1969 to more than 86,000 in 1975. Total annual visitation is expected to exceed 1,000,000 before 1980.

LEGISLATION was passed in 1974 to add $7.6 million to complete the land acquisition program. Additional legislation, to add approximately 4,000 acres to the Lakeshore, is still before Congress.

Construction is underway on a beach house, access roads, trails and picnic areas at West Beach. The exterior of historic Bailly homestead is being restored and new facilities are being planned for the Mt. Baldy dune area.

The Visitor Center at Kemil Road and U.S. 12 has been remodeled, providing more audio-visual facilities; and the former Nike missile base on Mineral Springs Road has been rehabilitated to provide housing this summer for 40 members of the Youth Conservation Corps. Plans also call for an administration building and an environmental education building in that area.

March 6, 1976: Indiana Port History Exemplifies Clash Conservation-Industry Forces Engage In Tug-Of-War Over Use Of Dunal Area

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on March 6, 1976.

Indiana Port History Exemplifies Clash

Conservation-Industry Forces Engage In Tug-Of-War Over Use Of Dunal Area

By MARTIN ZIMMERMAN

PORTER COUNTY’S 15 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline has long been a battleground for the traditional struggle between environmental and industrial interests. By being blessed both with the beautiful and valuable duneland and an ideal location for heavy industrial development, the county has often found itself cursed with the dilemma of having one or the other, but not both.

Perhaps no other chapter in the colorful history of the dune-covered shoreline better illustrates this dilemma than the 150-year battle to establish a deep-water port in the area. First envisioned early in the 19th century, the port and its proponents suffered through 100 years of government inertia until, with progress finally being made, conservationists marshaled their forces and put up such bitter opposition that it appeared for a while that the century-and-a-half old dream would never become a reality.

The story of what was eventually to become the Burns Waterway Harbor began even before Indiana was admitted to the Union in 1816. In 1805, what is now Porter County’s northern boundary was purchased from the state of Michigan by the territorial government so Indiana would have an outlet to the Great Lakes. The first white settler in the area, French trapper Joseph Bailly, recognized the potential of Indiana’s lake Michigan shoreline and as early as 1822 he made plans for establishing a port at the mouth of the Grand Calumet River.

Although nothing ever came of Bailly’s dream, in 1832 Congress sent Sen. Daniel Webster to northern Indiana to inspect prospective sites for a major Great lake port. Webster was in favor of City Westーlocated near present day Tremontーas the site for the port, but Michigan City and Chicagoー then a town of under 300ーreceived the approval and the appropriations for harbor development. By-passed by Congress, City West lost its reason for existence and soon died out, and Porter County would wait more than a century for another chance at a port.

FOR THE NEXT 50 years, northern Indiana sat idly by as Chicago boomed. Without sufficient port facilities, Porter County could not persuade industry to settle within its boundaries. When Standard Oil and United States Steel finally opened plants in Lake County early in the 20th Century, they built private ports for their own use rather than fight for a public harbor.

In 1906, however, dreams of an Indiana port were revived when Randall Burns, a leading farmer and landowner in the area, proposed the digging of a channel to drain the marshy land around Gary. because of legal entanglements, the waterway was not completed until 1926, but it was a milestone in the history of the future port. Lawrence Preston of Indiana University, in his book on the harbor, said, “It gave the future harbor the name ‘Burns’ ...and made the project appear more plausible by delineating the locale for its fulfillment.”

In 1928, supporters of the port received a shot in the arm when the National Steel Corporation purchased 750 acres of duneland for eventual construction of a complete steel mill. National’s proposal to build a port at the mouth of Burns Ditch was found unacceptable, however, as it was thought the mills would make the port inaccessible to the general public.

In 1935, harbor proponents were brought together by the Valparaiso Chamber of Commerce to form the Northern Industrial Development Association (NIDA), which consisted of members from Porter, LaPorte and Lake counties. Later the same year, U.S. Rep. Charles A. Halleck pushed a resolution through the House committee on Rivers and Harbors authorizing the Army Corps of Engineers to hold a hearing on a possible harbor. The hearing brought together many Indiana officials and concerned citizens, including Gov. Paul McNutt, but the harbor proposal was turned down on the grounds of insufficient public benefit. An appeal to the decision was also turned down, this time with a recommendation from the federal government that a site other than the Burns Ditch location under consideration be tried.

HALLECK TRIED AGAIN in 1937 by sponsoring a bill to authorize the Secretary of War to survey the northern Indiana area for possible harbor sites. The Corps of Engineers made the survey in 1938, but returned an unfavorable report, citing the lack of definite need and economic justification as their reasons.

Stymied on the federal level, the NIDA next turned to the state legislature, where a bill was passed in 1938 creating the Indiana Board of Public Harbors and Terminals. The same legislation also provided for a token appropriation for harbor development to show the Corps of Engineers that Indiana was indeed serious in its desire for a port. In 1940, however, a state of national emergency was declared and the engineers shelved all civil works until after the war.

During the war little progress was made in the campaign for a port, although the harbor board did initiate studies to collect data on the feasibility of a Lake Michigan outlet. The collected data was utilized in 1948 when Gov. Ralph Gates arranged a meeting between the board and the Indiana Economic Council to study the potential value of a port.

In July, 1949, a public meeting was held in Gary at which the harbor board set forth a nine-point argument in favor of a port. For the first time, however, conservationists who saw the port as a threat to the dunes surfaced as a very vocal opposition force. Despite criticism from the dune-lovers, a favorable report was issued and the Corps of Engineers was asked to perform yet another survey of proposed port sites. The Korean War interrupted, however, and in desperation Gov. George Craig asked the state to pay for its own survey. The state assembly did not appropriate the necessary funds and again the port was put on the shelf.

IN LATE 1955 and early 1956, two more economic feasibility studies were made and both returned favorable reports. Also included in one report was an estimate of the cost for building the port, which at this time was projected to be $18 million.

As 1956 progressed, however, it became clear that Indiana’s hopes for a port were heavily reliant on whether National Steel would build a steel mill near the site. Otherwise, the Corps of Engineers would not approve the project as economically feasible. National refused to make any sort of commitment, but in August, Bethlehem Steel Corporation bought several thousand acres of land near the National holdings and announced plans not only to build a mill but also to make part of the acreage available for a public harbor.

Further impetus was received the same year when both houses of Congress authorized theor Public Works committees to study all Great Lakes harbors in preparation for the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway. The chief engineer of the Army agreed to combine the study of the Burns Waterway Harbor originally proposed in 1951 with the larger study, and this interim report resulted four years later in the first official approval of a deep-water port in the waterway area.

Meanwhile, in January, 1957, Indiana appropriated $2 million for land purchase for the harbor, and Gov. Harold Handley continued to push the steel companies for a definite commitment. At the same time, another economic feasibility study was performed by Joseph Hartley of Indiana University which would take into account the St. Lawrence Seaway.

The Hartley Report, completed in mid-1959, pointed out in great detail the possib;e benefits of a port to the state and estimated the cost of such a port at $36 million.

WHEN THE HARTLEY report was made public, Gov. Handley also announced a new site for the port between the holdings of National and Bethlehem. The state also received a definite commitment from National to build a steel mill at the site, a decision which prompted the district Army engineer to finally approve the port and to reaffirm the economic benefits of such a venture. Shortly thereafter, the division engineer also approved the project.

With the approval of the Corps of Engineers, harbor proponents began to feel that success was near. But as the 1960s dawned, it became obvious that the real fight was just beginning. Rallying behind the leadership of Illinois Sen. Paul Douglas, the Save the Dunes Council began agitating to have the site of the port shifted away from the dunes area, and succeeded in having the favorable report channelled back to the district engineer.

To escape opposition from the dunelovers, the Indiana Port Commission, formed in 1961, recommended that the state build the port itself, thereby bypassing the federal government, where the dunes council had planned to fight the port. In an attempt to bring the two sides together, Indiana Sen. Vance Hartke introduced legislation that provided for both a port and a national park in Porter County. Douglas, however, introduced a bill which called for a park only, and action on the two bills soon became impossible.

Bogged down again on the federal level, the Indiana Port Commission took the initiative and began to buy land for the port. At the same time, Bethlehem announced plans for a complete mill near the harbor site, which became important in 1963 when the Chief of Army Engineers recommended that the port not be approved unless the adjacent areas were industrialized. The Bureau of the Budget studied the recommendation and Bethlehem’s commitment and then gave its approval for the port. Sens. Birch Bayh and Hartke introduced a bill for federal participation in the building of the port, but it was not passed in 1963 or 1964.

IN 1965, after lengthy debate, the U.S. House and Senate both passed bills authorizing the harbor, but differences in the bills had to be reconciled before they could be signed into law. The Senate bill contained a proviso that stated no money could be spent on the harbor until a national lakeshore was established to protect the surrounding dune areas. The House version merely provided that steps be taken to insure that the dunes were not harmed by the port. A compromise was worked out in October which provided only that a vote be taken on the national park proposal, thereby making federal appropriations for the harbors no longer contingent upon passage of the park bill.

With this roadblock removed, the port bill was quickly passed by Congress, thereby conferring official authorization on the Burns Harbor project. In May, 1966, the Army Corps of Engineers gave the final confirmation of federal support for the harbor, and ground was broken in October of that year.

On Sept. 11, 1969, a Bethlehem ore boar discharged its load of iron ore at the steel company’s dock and thereby became the first vessel to use the port. After a century and a half of frustration, disappointment and perseverance, Indiana’s dream of a water outlet to the trade of the world was a reality.

Nov. 21, 1955: Oily Lake Michigan Water Kills Birds

Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger of Porter County on November 21, 1955.

Oily Lake Michigan Water Kills Birds

At least 200 water fowl have frozen to death along the Porter county shores of Lake Michigan, conservation officials said today.

Heavy oil in the water “gummed up” their feathers and prevented the birds from flying after alighting in the water, Conservation Officer Charles Black said.

Unable to leave the water by flying, the birds swam or were washed ashore where they froze to death.

Black and a party of seven men covered a four-mile stretch of the shoreline east and west of Dunes State park from late Saturday until 3 a.m. Sunday.

During this time, the party found 37 “grounded” birds which were still living. The men washed the fowl in a detergent and brought them to the Liberty township farm of Earl Hanrahan, where the animals are recuperating.

Black said that when the birds are able to preen their feathers with natural oil they will be released on inland lakes. The conservation officer also said today he did not know how long the birds would have to be kept at the Hanrahan’s before they could be released.

Most of the dead and rescued birds were of the inedible “fish duck” type, Black said. There were a few edible blue bills, he added. Among the birds found on the beach were cormorants, grebes and mergansers, which regularly inhabit the lake region.

Conservation officials said the source of the oil, which “is like a heavy No. 6 oil,” was not definitely known, although it may have come from industrial waste in the Gary area. Dead birds were found as far west as Michigan City.

Black said he first was notified of the condition Friday by persons at Dune Acres where youngsters were washing the grounded birds with a detergent.

Many of the surviving birds found by Black and his party Saturday night were unable to move when they were picked up and washed.

Floundering Birds Given Baths By Dunes State Park Officials

SOME OF THE 15 WATER FOWL found alive the shores of Lake Michigan’s Dune State park are shown being given a bath in a soapy detergent today to remove the gummy substance from their feathers, believed to have been caused by heavy oil in the water. The gummy condition prevented the fowl from flying, and washed them ashore. Park Supt. Max Dickey, left, reported that about one-half of the birds found along the shoreline Sunday were frozen to death. A check along the shore today revealed no floundering fowl. Helping in rehabilitation the fowl is parking employee Clarence Sederberg, of Chesterton.