The Elbert County tribune., 1919-08-29

rocks and stones and quicksands slopIng very
gradually into deep water There Is probably no
finer freshwnter bathing beach In the world.
Don't think of the dunes as heaps of bare sanu
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 are a great natural propagating gnrden
with most astonishing array Of trees and plants
and flowers This garden is packed full OF hora
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 a
towering dune crowned with flowers and plants
and trees tomorrow 1t is gone and where 1t was ID
a great blowout of gstening sand, with LIZ steep
sides strewn with dead trunks exhumed from an
ancient graveyard Of previous forest Today
there is n deep cash In the BLUM tomorrow It's
place is taken by very lofty heap OF white
sand that hns up, grain by grain. out OF the
lake, on which grasses and plants and shrubs and
treelets already struggling for foothold To
day stands n forest the edge Of shallow pond;
tomorrow 1t s cemetery, with even the tree
tops covered by sand marching In from the beach.
The accompanying map and diagram shows
where the mnterial that builds the dunes Is com
Ing from and how 1t gets there. Lake Michigan
has been taking material from the west shore and
depositng Ii at the dunes for period reckoned Mt
about 5000 years. PREVIOUS 10 .tnis perlou tne
level of the lake 80 go feet higher than now
and the discharge toward the Mississippi at
a point where now are the dunes. When the
ice-gorge or gacer which prevented the discharge
of water into the St Lawrence 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 soundngs
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
Indiana state line northward into Wisconsin.
Where this land Is now water frofn 30 to 90
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 II 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 II. 1t Is estimated
that 100000 tons of soil is takenSyeary 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 will in few years
he pretty sodly settled by people who have money
10 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
breakwaters. The supply OF building material for
the dunes will presumably stop. Perhaps then the
dunes will stop "wnlking'
Let us hope that long before that time the
Dunes National park will be peoples playground
dedicated to public recreation forever.