Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore preservation · Preservation in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
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Preservation in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
Preservation in Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore
After the newly-formed U.S. Steel Corporation began to contruct a massive mill complex within the dunes at Gary, Indiana, lovers of the Dunes began efforts to preserve them. The National Park Service offered in 1916 to protect much of the remaining duneland as Sand Dunes National Park, but many locals opposed the proposal. In the 1920s, the state of Indiana preserved 2,182 acres of central duneland as Indiana Dunes State Park. Other sections of duneland were developed as the small communities of Ogden Dunes, Dune Acres, and Beverly Shores.
World War II and the early Cold War years increased pressure upon the United States to increase its production of steel. For reasons of economical coal and iron ore supply, one of the most efficient geographic locations to make steel within the United States is on the southern border of Lake Michigan. During the 1950s and early 1960s, several additional steel mills were sited within the dunelands in areas that could otherwise have been preserved for parkland.
After the former Bethlehem Steel Corporation acquired and built its Burns Harbor mill in 1962-64, a public outcry and pressure from activists, led by Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D-Ill.) led to the creation of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
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Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.