Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 12 February, 1920
WILL MAKE DUNES ROAD
Indiana Highway Commission Planning on Building Road Within Two Years. Indianapolis, Ind., Feb. 12.--The Indiana dunes highway extending across the north end of the state will be recommended for improvement under the state highway act by the state highway commission in their report to Governor Goodrich on April 1. The road will be improved and be a great artery of cross-country traffic connecting with a great Michigan state highway across that state from Detroit to New Buffalo. Whether the work will actually be started this year is still problematical but the year 1920 will certainly see the work under way. The only reason for holding up the improvement will be the lack of funds.
The much talked of Dunes highway is to become a reality. State and federal funds are to be made available for the improvement. The road is to follow through Porter county the highway known as the Chicago road. This passes only a short distance from Chesterton and local people will rejoice when the road is completed. Interstate automobile traffic is desirable in many ways, but considerably undesirable when the local people must build the roads only to have them destroyed at the end of a few months. The fair thing to do is to improve those roads which are main arteries of travel by state and federal funds. This is what evidently is about to take place. The first intimation of the certainty of the project to go through was at the annual meeting of the Indiana Dunes Highway association in Gary recently. H. Pollentzke from this county was present. Representatives of all Calumet cities were in attendance. L. H. Wright, state highway commissioner addressed the association and gave assurance that the project would be taken up by the state and pushed to completion.
The commission intends to take the Grand Beach road over from Michigan City to the State line where it connects with the Michigan Pike. The present plans of the commission do not include the rebuilding of the South Bend road from Boot Jack on the Lincoln Highway to Michigan City but a way may be found of connecting up the link between Boot Jack and Michigan City.
Michigan is now building a state highway from New Buffalo15 to Detroit almost paralleling the Michigan Central railroad and over two hundred of the three hundred miles are now completed. A movement is crystalizing for a great victory highway to lead across the state of Michigan from Port Huron through Lansing and other cities to end at Grand Beach and to connect with the Indiana Dunes Highway road and this thoroughfare will be a reality in a few years.
Michigan City Evening News, Wednesday, 11 May, 1921
GOOD ROADS WORK HOPES OF ACTIVITY Now comes the new man in charge of what is known as the Laporte sub-district of Indiana State road work with the announcement that the work in this county will be taken up at once. The new superintendent for the state highway commission is Lloyd Poindexter, who is here to take up the work this year. Mr. Poindexter was in Michigan City yesterday and in an interview with the Press stated that work will begin at once on road No. 13, what is known locally as the Grand Beach road. The first work will be to make the necessary repairs on this road. The roadbed will be widened to 18 feet and will be filled and graded to a smooth condition and will then be surfaced with fine stone and oiled. This, however, is to be only temporary repairs. As heretofore understood, the new state road over this Michigan City Grand Beach strip is to be built along the South side of the Michigan Central road to eliminate what are known as the Scott and the Buck crossings where so many accidents have occurred and so many people have been killed.16 The work of repairs and improvement on the old road are to be completed soon as possible and the probabilities are that the work will necessitate the closing of the road for some time again this season. As soon as the repairs are made on this road Superintendent Poindexter states that he will begin the work on the Michigan road leading east from this city. This road is known as road No. 15, and the work under the jurisdiction of the state extends from this city to the junction of the Yellow River road, a few miles east of the city and thence over the Yellow River road to Laporte, the state jurisdiction being at present laid out south through to Logansport. That part of this lying in the Laporte sub-division and under charge of Superintendent Poindexter extends to the south line of Starke county.
A part of the State road No. 1, which is locally known as the Dixie Highway, is also in the jurisdiction of Mr. Poindexter. The part of that road over which he has jurisdiction extends from the Michigan state line to South Bend and thence south to Lakeville in St. Joseph county.
Another division of the state highway, a part of which is also included in the Laporte sub-division district, is road No. 44, extending from Valparaiso, where it intersects the Lincoln highway, through Wanatah, and Hamlet to Plymouth, where it intersects the Dixie Highway, or state road No. 1. Superintendent Poindexter's jurisdiction over this road 44, extends from the Laporte county line in the east to the county line on the west, near Wanatah.
Two Big Road Tractors Superintendent Poindexter states that he will receive here soon two ten ton tractors which are to be used in his work in this county. The tractors will be used in preparing the roads for grading work. These tractors will facilitate the work and greatly aid in its more rapid progress. The machines are coming from Ohio and will be permanently placed for the road work in this district.
Michigan City-Gary Road The Michigan City-Gary road, which is to take the old Indian trail from this city to Gary and to connect up with the Gary-Chicago boulevard at Gary, is known as state road No. 43, and extends from Gary through Michigan City and includes the Grand Beach road to the Michigan state line. This road, however, is not in the Laporte sub-district but is a part of the sub-district just west of this county. The superintendent of this district is George F. Pearce, of Valparaiso, whose headquarters are at Crown Point, Lake county.
This is a part of the state road work which it is understood that the state highway commission has had in contemplation of early construction and has gone so far as to have blue prints prepared of it. It might be well for Michigan City and Gary interests to join hands and get busy on this job. A little activity and interest from this end of the state might have a good effect upon hastening the construction work on this greatly important link in connecting up Chicago and Gary with a good road from Chicago to northern Michigan.
15This route, which became U.S. 12, is sometimes confused, by present-day writers, with the Sauk Trail (Chicago Road). The Great Sac Trail however crossed into Indiana over in Saint Joseph County, nowhere near Lake Michigan or New Buffalo.
16Grand Beach (Corymbo) Road and the two railroad crossings still exist but not as part of the highway. They now just serve local traffic to the beachfront towns.
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This page is at https://members.tripod.com/~Ogden_Dunes/duneshwy/.html. Posted 3 January, 1999. Corrected and reposted 13th April, 2004, after being knocked off-line four years ago.