The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1919-08-29

rocks and stones and quicksands, slopinG very
gradually into deep water. There is probably no
finer freSllWater bathing beach in the world.
Don't think Of the dunes as heaps of bare sahu
in Il desert. They are exactly the reverse. lhey
have water, trees, shrubs, vines, flowers. grass
birds and small wild animal life. The truth is that
the dunes are Il great natural propagating garden
with q most astonishing array of trees ana plants
and flowers. This garden is packed full OF nora
from the Lake Superior region, the Atlantic coast,
the middle South and the western prairie. IL
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 ana
important plant species numbers 2OS.'
To the ordinary visitor probably the spectucie
Of the walking dunes is the most interesting.
Here he secs land in the making. Here today Is IL
towering dune crowned with flowers ana pian.S
and trees: tomorrow it is gone and where IL was Is
a great blowout Of glistening sand, Win It's steep
sides strewn with dead trunks eXhumed from an
ancient graveyard Of n previous forest. To-Day
there is a deep cash in the bluff tomorrow its
Mace is taken by a very lofty heap of white
sand that has come up, grain by grain out Oh ihe
lake. ON which grasses and plants and shrubs and
treelets are already struggling for a foothold. To-
day stands Il forest on the edge Of a shallow pond;
tomorrow II is 4 cemetery, with even NE tree
tons covered by sand marching in from the beach.
The Recommending 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 anu
depositing it at the dunes for a period reckoned at
about 5000 years. Previous to this period the
level Of the lake was 30 or 60 feet higher than now
and the discharge was toward the Mississippi at
q 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 oil the
gulf. the level dropped, the present lake currents
cot in and the building Of the dunes was begun.
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 5OO square
miles of land from the shore extending from the
Indiana state line nOrthward into Wisconsin,.
Where this land was is now water froin 30 to CD
foot deem 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; 1t Is accounted
for nv the SoftnesS Of the shore, which Is largely
composed of material that was ground very line
hv 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
Y plenty Of "a'e''a' ~
THESE facts suggest this interesting question:
What will happen to the dunes when the supply
of building material stops!
And stop II will, and that comparatively soon
Eor tho shore north of Chicago will in a few years
no nrottv solidly settled by people who have money
RI spend to prevent further erosion OF the shore.
In fact. erosion has already been stopped over
long stretches, and in many places the shore mas
been built out. The time is coming whea the wesr
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 us hope that long before that time the
Dunes National park will be q peoples playground
dedicated to public recreation forever.