The Tomahawk., 1919-09-04

rocks and stones and quicksands sloping very
gradually into deep water. There is probably no
finer freshwater bathing beach In the world.
Don't think of the dunes as heaps of bare sano
I'm a desert. They are exactly TIM reverse Iney
haye water, trees, shrubs, vines. flowers, grass
birds and small wild animal life. The truth Is tna'
the dunes are great natural propaEating garaen
with most astonishing array of trees ana plants
and flowers This garden Is packed fuu OF nora
from the Lake Superior region, the Atlantic coast
the middle South and the western prstrie. IL
seems to have almost everything In the pant me
from cactus to cranberries and from pines TO lump
trees. A list Of only the most characteristic ana
important plant species numbers 2S. -.
FL TO the ordinary visitor probably the spectactc
of the "waking dunes" is the most Interesting.
Here he sees land in the making Here today Is
towering dune crowned with flowers ana plants
and trees tomorrow it Is gone ana Whete waS 10
a areat blowout Of glistenng sand, with It's steep
sides strewn with dead trunks exhumed from an
ancient graveyard of a previous forest. Today
there is a deep cash In the bluff; tomorrow its
place IL taken by a very lofty heap OF whte
sand that has come up grain by grain. out OF the
lake, on which grasses and plants ana SHRUBS anu
treelets are already struggling tor footholo. 10
day stands a forest on the edge OF swallow ponu'
tomorrow It is q cemetery, with even the tree
tons 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 Micnigan
has been taking material from the west shore and
depositing 1t at the dunes FOR period reckoned ut
about 5000 years. Previous to this period the
level Of the lake was so 60 feet higher than now
and the discharge was toward the Mississippi at
a point nenr where now are the dunes. When the
ice-rorge or glacer which prevented the discharge
of wafer into the st. Lawrence was removed and
the lah~ drained into the Atlantic instead OF the
gulf, the level dropped, the present lake currents
act in and the building Of the dunes was begun.
Public land surveys made in 1885 and soundings
~ Lake Michigan furnish the data for these
estimates: During the last 5000 years the waters
Of the lake have washed away about oOO square
miles OF land from the shore extending from the
Indiana state line northward into Wisconsin.
where this land was is now water from 30 to 90
foot deem The old shore line extends out from
three to nine miles then there is an abrupt drop
Of several hundred feet. t..
This Is an unparalleled erosion; 1t Is accounted
FOR hy the softness of the shore, which Is largely
composed of material that was ground very nne
nv the glaciers that deposited 1t. 1t s estimated
that 100000 tons of soil Is taken yearly by the
,or. from the shore north Of Chicago. So there
=. n,euty of material for building operations ut
the dunes.
what viii happen to the dunes when the supply
Of building material stopss
= And stop it WILL and that comparatively soon.
for the shore north Of Chicago will In few years
hs nretty 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 whea the west
shore will be protected from erosion by piers and
hreakwaters The supply Of building material for
the dunes will presumably stop. Perhaps then the
dunes will stop walking"
Let us hope that long before that time the
Dunes National park will be q peoples playground
dedicated to public recreation forevef.