The Newark journal., 1919-09-11

rocks and stones and quieksands soping very
gradually into deep water There is probably Do
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 wafer, trees shrubs, vines, flowers, grass
birds and small wild animal life The truth IS that
the dunes a great natural propagatins garden
with most astonishing array Of trees and plants
and flowers. This garden is packed full of flora
from the Lake Superior region, the Atlantic coast
the middle South and the western prairie. Ii
seems to have almost everything in the plant line
from cactus to cranberres and from pines to tulip
trees A list of only the most characteristic and
important plant species numbers POS.
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 ii is gone and where it was is
great blowout of glistening sand, with its steep
sides strewn with dead trunks exhumed from an
ancient graveyard Of a previous forest To-day
there is Il deep cash in the bluff tomorrow its
place is taken by very lofty heap Of white
sand that has come up, grain by grain ont of the
lake on which grasses and plants and shrubs and
treelets already struggling for foothold. To
day stands forest the edge of shallow pond !;
tomorrow it is 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 it gets there. Lake Michigan
has been taking material from the west shore and
depositng it at the dunes for period reckoned AT
about 5000 years. Previous to this period the
level of the lake was 30 or 60 feet higher than
and the discharge toward the Mississippi ut
point near where now are the dunes. When the
ice-gorge 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
set In and the building of the dunes was begun.
Public land surveys made in 1885 and sonndngs
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 frofn 80 to 60
feet deep The old shore line extends out from
three to nine miles; then there is abrupt drop
of several hundred feet.
This is an unparalleled erosion; 1t 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 it will. and that comparatively soon
For the shore north of Chicago will in a few years
be pretty solidly settled by people who have money
TO spend To prevent further erosion of the shore
In fact erosion has already been stopped over
long stretches and in many places the shore has
been built out, The time is coming whel the west
shore will be protected from erosion by piers and
breakwaters. The supply of building material for
the dunes Will presumably stop Perhaps then the
dunes will stop walking"
Let rs hope that long before that time the
Dunes National park viii be peoples playground
dedicated 70 public recreation forever.