The Bolivar County Democrat., 1919-08-30

rocks and stones and quickSands, SloplnS 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 sano
in desert. They are exactly the reverse. 1heS
have water, trees, shrubs, vines, flowers, grass
birds and small wild animal life The truth is that
the dunes are a great natural propagating garuen
with most astonishing array of trees ana piih's
and flowers. This garden is packed full OF nora
from the Lake Superior region, the Atlantic coast
the middle South and the western pfalrle. II
seems to have almost everything in the plant ilhe
from cactus to cranberres and from pines TO tnllp
trees list of only the most characteristic and
important plant species numbers 2oo.
TO the ordinary visitor probably the spectacle
of the "walking dunes" is the most ihterest"is'
Here he sees land in the making. Here To-Day -
towering dune crowned with flowers and pp ints
and trees tomorrow it is gone and where 1t WIS Is
a great blowout of glistening sand with its steep
sides strewn with dead trunks eXhumed from an
ancient graveyard of previous forest. 1ouas
there is q deep cash in the bluff; tomorrow lts
place is taken by very lofty heap OF wmte
sand that has come up grain by grain, out OF the
lake on which grasses and plants ana shrubs ana
treelets are already struggling for footbpld 10
day stands a forest on the edge of a shall Nv pond {;
tomorrow it is cemetery, with even 1ne Tree
tops covered by sand marching in from se beach.
The accompanying map and diagraa shows
where the material that builds the Ounce is com
has been taking material from the west shore and
depositing it at the dunes for period reckoned at
about 5000 years Previous to this period the
level of the lake so or gu feet higher than no"
and the discharge was toward the Mississippi at
a point near where now are the dunes. When the
ice-gorge or glacer which prevented the dlscharge
of water into the st. Lawrence was removed ana
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 soundings
of Lake Michigan furnish the data Tor THESE
estimates: During the last 5000 years the waters
of the lake have washed away about 900 sd sare
miles of land from the shore extending from DIE
Indiana state line northward into Wiscon "a.
Where this land was is now water fro'n 5o 10 Va
feet deep. The old shore line extends OUT 1r' ~
three TO nine miles then there is an abrupt dr -
of several hundred feet.
rhis is an unparalleled erosion it is accountt q
for by the softness of the shore which is largely
comnosed of material that was ground very fine
hy the glaciers that deposited it, 1t is estlmateA
that 100000 tons of soil is taken yearly py the
take from the shore north of Chicago. SO there
is plenty Of material for building operations at
the dunes.
These facts suggest this interesting question ::
yrtot will happen to the dunes when the supply
of building material stops4
And ston it will and that comparatively soon.
For the shore north of Chicago will in few years
be pretty sotidy settled by people who have money
to snend TO prevent further erosion OF the shore,
In fact erosion has already been stopped over
long stretches. and ia many places the shore has
been built out. The time is coming when the west
shore will be protected from erosion by piers and
breekwaters. 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 peoples playground,
dedicated to public recreation forever