The patriot. (Glenmora, La.) 1918-1955, 1919-08-29

rocks and stones and quicksands, soping very
gradually into deep water There is probably no
finer freshwater bathing beach in the world.
Don't think of the dunes heaps of bare sand
in desert. They exactly the reverse. They
have water. trees. shrubs. vines, flowers, grass
birds and small wild animal ife The truth is that
the dunes are great natural prOpagating garden
with most astonishing array of trees and plants
and flowers. This garden Is packed full or nora
from the Lake Superior region. the Atlantic coast
the middle South and the western prairie. 1t
seems to have almost everything In the plant line
from cactus to cranberries and from pines to tulip
trees. A list of only the most characteristic and
important plant species numbers 2O8
To the ordinary visitor probably the spectacle
Of the walking Dunes Is the most interesting
Here he sees land In the making. Here today is
towering dune crowned with flowers and plants
and trees: tomorrow it is gone and where it was Is
great blowout of giistening sand, with its steep
sides strewn with dead trunks exhumed from an
ancient graveyard of previous forest. To-day
there is deep cash In the bluff: tomorrow its
place Is taken by q very lofty heap OF white
sand that has come up, grain by grain, out of the
lake, on which grasses and plants and shrubs and
treelets are already struggling fora foorhold To-
day stands forest on the edge of shallow pond;
tomorrow it is A. cemetery, with even the tree
tops covered by sand marching in from the beach.
The accompanying map and diagram shows
where the material that builds the dunes is COM
ing from and how 1t gets there. Lake Michigan
has been taking material from the west shore and
depositing 1t at the dunes for period reckoned at
about 5000 years. Previous to this period the
level the lake was 80 or 90 feet higher than
and the discharge was toward the Mississippi at
point near where the dunes. When the
ice-gorge or glacer which prevented the discharge
Of water into the st Lawrence was removed and
the lake drained into the Atlantic instead of the
gulf the level dropped, the present lake currents
IN n t1,o huIf of fho ftno xvQ hoo
Public land surveys made In 1885 and soundings
OF Lake Michigan furnish the data for these
estimates: During the last 5000 years the waters
of the lake have washed away about 500 square
miles of land from the shore extending from the
Indiana state line northward into Wisconsin.
Where this land was is now water FROM 80 to 60
feet deep. The old shore line extends out from
three to nine miles; then there is an abrupt drop
of several hundred feet.
This is an unparalleled erosion; it Is accounted
for by the softness of the shore, which is largely
composed of material that was ground very fine
BY the glaciers that deposited 1t. 1t is estimated
that 100000 tons of soil is taken yearly by the
lake from the shore north of Chicago. So there
is plenty of material for building operations at
the dunes.
These facts suggest this Interesting question
What will happen to the dunes when the supply
OF building material stops?
And stop 1t will. and that comparatively soon
For the shore north OF Chicago win In few years
be pretty sOlidiy settled by people who have money
to spend to prevent further erosion Of the shore.
II facf. erosion has already been stopped over
long stretches. and IN many places the shore has
been built our. The time Ii coming When the west
shore VIII be protected from erosion BY piers and
breakwafess. The supply Of building material for
the dunes Win presumably stop. Perhaps then the
Zines win stop walking
lei is hope that lon& before that time ffe /
Ihi4t$ Eati6nal PARK Will be peoples playground