Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1919-08-28

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 heaps of bare sand
in a desert They are exactly the reverse. They
have water trees shrubs vines, flowers, grass,
birds and small wild animal life. The truth is that
the dunes are great natural propagatng garden
with a 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. 1t
seems TO have almost everything in the plant line
from cactus to cranherres and from prizes 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 ne sees land in the making. Here today is
towering dune crowned with flowers and plants
and trees. tomorrow it IS gone and where it was is
a great blowout of glistenng sand, with its 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 is taken by a very lofty heap of white
sand that has come up grain by grain, out of the
lake on which grasses and plants and shrubs and
treelets are already struggling for foothod. To
day stands forest on the edge of a shallow pond;
tomorrow IL is a 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 1t gets there Lake Michigan
has been taking material from the west shore and
deposlting II mt the dunes for period reckoned at
about 5000 Years Previous TO this period the
level of the lake was 30 or 90 feet higher than now
and the discharge was toward the Mississippi at
"A point near where are Tive dunes When the
ice-gorge or 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 soundings
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 from 80 10 GO
feet deep The old shore line extends ont from
three 10 nine miles then there is abrupt drop
of several hundred feet.
This is an unparalleled erosion; IL 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. II is estimated
that 100000 tons OF soil is taken yearly by the
hike from the shore north of Chicago So there
s plenty of material for building operations at
yhe dunes.
These facts suggest this interesting question
What wiz happen 10 the dunes when the supply
of building material stouS2
And stop .t wiI and that comparatively soon.
For the shore north of Chicago VIII i'm a few years
be pretty so'.lry settled by people who have money
10 spend to prevent further erosion Of the shore.
In fact erosion has already been stoHped over
long stretches and in many places the shore has
been built ont The time Is coming when the west
shore viii be- protected from erosion h3 piers and
breakwaters The supply of building material for
the dunes Wi presumably stop. Perhaps then the
dunes viii stop walking"
Let rs hove that long before that time the
Dunes National park will be peoples playground,
dedicated 80 public recreation forever.