Newsletter of the Historical Society of Ogden Dunes, Indiana,
Inc. Volume 6 Number 1
January 1998
[This is about half of this issue, which is what I happened to have in electronic form.]
DUNE SAND - A DISAPPEARING NATURAL RESOURCE
The beautiful wide, sandy beaches that many of us knew have disappeared because of "progress". Many knew that this would happen, but no one would really listen to them. Let us hope that at least some restoration can be made.
How was the great abundance of sand along the southern shore of Lake Michigan viewed by others in the past? This would require considerable research for a complete account but our historian Peter Youngman comes across interesting tid bits from time to time.
Michigan City Evening News, Wednesday,
2 September, 1903
TO SEE SAND HILL.
AN INDIANAPOLIS BOY STEALS MOTHER'S PURSE. And Accompanied By a Boy Friend He Came to This City--Both Lads
Taken Into Custody.
A desire to view Hoosier slide caused Orpha Miller, 10-year-old son of
Mr. and Mrs. Fred Miller of Oak Hill, Indianapolis, to steal his mother's
purse, which contained $11 in money, Tuesday morning and to purchase with
the stolen coin two tickets to this city via the Lake Erie and Western
road the same to be used by himself and a boy friend, Harry Lemmon, aged
11 years, son of Mr. and Mrs. Charles Lemmon. The youngsters arrived here
on the evening train and though hungry and tired after their long ride
they did not wait to procure supper or rest but went immediately to the
sand hill that has a world wide reputation and spent nearly an hour climbing
up its steep sides and sliding down again. About 10 o'clock the fellows
appeared on north Franklin street where they were taken into custody by
Patrolman Fred Teidt. When first locked up the youngsters told various
tales of how they had procured tickets to this city. The Miller boy first
said that he had earned the money by running errands, but later admitted
having stolen it. Superintendent Bowlin telegraphed the parents of the
boys today and it is expected that one of the fathers will arrive here
this afternoon to take the boys back to Indianapolis.
Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 21 August,
1890
--Mr. Crisman of Portage township was a caller at the TRIBUNE
office last Tuesday. He reports business booming down his way. There are
three steam shovels stationed at Dock Siding which are shoveling sand as
fast as the railroad company can furnish the cars. Men are in demand, and
get $1.50 per day.
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Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 4 September,
1890
--There doubtless are many who never supposed that the beautiful white
sand so generously heaped upon the shores at Michigan City, St. Joseph
and other points by Lake Michigan, ever could, or ever would be utilized
in any shape or manner, and especially for the manufacture of so substantial
a thing as a brick is supposed to be. Yet the doubting many has been changed
to the believing few and all those who have seen the variety of bricks,
curbing, ornaments, etc., made from this sand by the Michigan Sand Brick
Co., of St. Joe, have expressed surprise. It seemed hardly possible that
a brick could be made from this sand, yet it is, and the sand when combined
with cement and certain chemicals forms a solid and strong looking article.
The firm is a new one yet it is gaining a strong hold and is bound to grow
for it is already one of St. Joe's increasing industries.--South Bend Tribune.
Michigan City News, Wednesday, 28 January,
1903
LOOKING OVER SITES. Brick Company People Considering Propositions of Land Owners.
George L. Smith, general manager and George C. G. Hicks, assistant general
manager of the American Pressed Brick company, which may locate a brick
plant in Michigan City, spent Saturday in company with City Engineer Miles
in looking over available sites east of the city. The company wants about
40 acres of land but can get along with five acres. The price per acre
will largely determine the amount the company will buy and for this reason
it does not seem probable that those who have the land wanted will ask
an exorbitant figure and possibly drive a business concern to another locality.
Messrs. Smith and Hicks assure THE NEWS
that the American Pressed Brick company is ready to do business and will
not come in competition with any Michigan City concern. This company will
manufacture pressed brick out of sand by a secret process. Their plans
call for a frame building 60 by 50 feet in size and several stories high.
Twenty-five men will be given employment as soon as the plant is started
and the number of employes will undoubtedly be increased to 100 within
a year. The gentlemen state that all machinery has been ordered and should
a deal be closed for a site building operations will begin within ten days.
Mr. Hicks is to be the resident manager of the plant and Mr. Smith will
make frequent trips here from his home in Detroit.
Other locations that those of Michigan City have been offered to the
company but other things being equal this city is preferred. Messrs. Smith
and Hicks this morning received a proposition from the Wabash Railway company
to locate the plant on the company's line near Whiting.
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Chesterton Tribune, Thursday, 18 September,
1890
--Now that the World's Fair directors have decided upon the Lake Front
and Jackson Park as a site for the great exhibition the prospects of the
removal of the sand hills between here and Millers to be used for filling
purposes are excellent. Thousands of men will be employed along the Lake
Shore road to do the work, and Chesterton must necessarily become the headquarters
for the trains and crews that will haul the sand away.
Chesterton Tribune, Friday, 2 October,
1903
N. B. Tanner, of Woodville, was in town Tuesday, and got to telling
some of his experiences of away back before the war. He was one of the
men who helped build the horse railroad to Lake Michigan, in this township
and help load the first log that was hauled over it. At that time there
was a pier out in the lake at the end of the railroad, and he solemnly
affirms that it was nothing for him to go out on that pier, throw out a
line strung with four or five hooks, unbaited, and catch a water pail full
of perch in a few minutes. All he had to do was to throw the line in the
water and draw it up. The fish were so thick in the water that the hooks
could not help catching into them, and every haul was rewarded with two
or three fish. One time he was out with a party who had a seine, and caught
thirty-two hundred pounds of white fish. Before they got half of the catch
cleaned and salted, the rest had spoiled and had to be buried in the sand.
Now a white fish is as scarce at this end of the lake as saw timber in
the woods.
Gary Daily Tribune, Saturday, 22 May,
1909
GARY'S SAND WILL BE TAMED.
The Gary Tribune says the furious sand storms that rage there when it is
dry makes the discomfort general and is a serious drawback to the city,
but they will never get it fixed until they put concrete walks all over
Calumet township, and pile stones on the walks to hold them down.--Crown
Point Star.
Not so. Gary will get on top of the sand and hold it down firmly without
putting cement walks anywhere except the places where they are needed.
It is going to be no easy matter, however. The sand that the dunes around
here produce is of the sociable variety. It likes to go visiting every
time the wind gets stronger than a zephyr. Instead of staying in one spot
for the weeds to grow, this Gary sand moves about freely and never stops
long enough for even a banner line or a sprig of sorrel to get a foot hold.
Of course, in the numberless ages which have passed since the dunes
were thrown up by the waves of Lake Michigan the sand learned the truth
of the old maxim that "rolling stones gather no moss"
and in their original shape the dunes had a scant covering of vegetation
and grew fair sized oak trees. It was only when man came along and disturbed
these habits of centuries in levelling off the dunes to make a site for
the city of Gary that the habits of centuries were broken, and since that
time the sand has apparently been making up for the long period lost when
it was tied down in dunes. It has ever since been moving. All the people
of Gary have to do is to restore the old habits to the sand and it will
remain quiet again for centuries to come.
It will take time to do this but it will surely be done, for the drifting
sand is now one of the most serious drawbacks to the prosperity of the
city of Gary.
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Michigan City Evening Dispatch, Saturday,
30 January, 1909
PLAN FOR A BIG PARK
MOVEMENT FOR RESERVATION ON LAKE SHORE. Forestalling the Prospects of a Continuous City and Industrial Center
from This City Westward.
A movement to create a state park out of the tract of wilderness lying
along the southern shores of Lake Michigan, known far and wide as "the
Dunes," is being started by several Chicago out-of-door enthusiasts
under the lead of Jens Jensen, superintendent of the West Chicago park
system. This wild and archaic country has long been a district of the utmost
interest to naturalists and students of geography, since it presents conditions
nowhere else to be found.
The territory which extends from Millers, two miles east to the lake
and all along the shore to Michigan City, is destitute of population. Today
it is practically as nature left it when she added the finishing touches
to creation; it is a sort of waste corner, with odds and ends of vegetation
belonging to zones far north or south of it.
Southern Cacti; Northern Mosses.
Side by side are to be found growing specimens of cactus and sage common
to the deserts of the southwest and mosses found in the northern woods.
It is said that there is to be found almost every specimen of pine tree
known, many that are scarce even in their native element. The flora of
the territory is profuse and varied in the same unique way, so that it
is a paradise for the collector, and annual pilgrimages are made there
by hundreds of botanists.
The dunes at Miller's reach a height of 150 feet and are covered with
a thick forest growth. The effect of their resistless movement may be observed
in forests in actual process of being submerged and again in the dead stumps
of trees left behind as the dune has slowly shifted forward under the influence
of the wind. There are few places on the continent which offer such material
for the study of geography in the making.
Entire Wilderness Threatened.
This entire wilderness is today threatened by the encroachment of civilization,
since it is at the southern edge of the rapidly growing industrial territory
of Gary, Whiting and Indiana Harbor. It is only a matter of time, argue
those interested in the proposition, before this line of commercial towns
will extend around the shore to Michigan City, and the sand dunes, the
products of centuries, will have been carted away in box cars and the primeval
wilderness will have been transformed into sites of steel mills, blast
furnaces and slag dumps.
"The dunes will some day be the center of a vast industrial
population," said Mr. Jensen, "and some provision should
now be made for a park area. We should be far-sighted enough to build for
future generations and to prevent the crowded, suffocated areas that are
now the problem of our civilization.
"Aside from the purely practical proposition of retaining an
open area in the middle of a commercial and industrial territory, there
are scientific reasons for preserving this country. It is a sort of meeting
place for the flora of north, south, east and west. In the swamps are to
be found cranberries, pitcher plants and some orchids; on the dunes are
innumerable specimens of cacti and desert vegetation, as well as mosses
native to the far north. The forests include many trees rare in this climate,
such as the sassafras and the sycamore.
Wants Large Tract Set Aside.
"Then there is this wonderful wilderness so near to the heart
of civilization. That is one of the most unique features of the proposed
preservation. Another reason for such a measure is to preserve a feature
which will have such historic interest in future. Unless some such action
is taken soon these dunes will be leveled for commercial purposes, and
one of the most interesting tracts in America will have been obliterated.
"I believe that a tract of at least 500 acres should be set
aside and saved from certain sacrifice to the unpoetic and indiscriminating
stride of industry. The great tendency of the age is to find the shortest
distance between two points. The work of the landscape architect of the
future is going to be the restoration of curves and natural lines; everything
today is being made into straight lines."
Life memberships and contributions beyond the membership level amount go into an endowment fund. Dues, except Life, are to be paid annually and are good for the calendar year. Back issues of the HOUR GLASS for the calendar year are supplied to new members who join anytime during the calendar year.
Historical Society of Ogden Dunes, Inc.
115 Hillcrest Road - 101
Ogden Dunes, IN 46368-1001
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