Advocacy Group: Promote Indiana Dunes In Chicago
PORTER, Ind. (CBS) -- A national parks advocacy group says many Chicagoans could be enjoying the Indiana Dunes along Lake Michigan, but they might not know it's there.
As WBBM Newsradio's Felicia Middlebrooks reports, a new report from the National Parks Conservation Association reveals a need for more exposure for beautiful and historic sites along the Indiana National Lakeshore.
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The report says despite the fact the lakeshore is in the top tier of n national parks, many Chicagoans are not aware of it.
The report says the National Park Service needs to increase its presence in Chicago through the designation of a trail of historic and natural sites that lead to the National Lakeshore.
The report says the service also needs to bring a higher level of awareness to Chicago residents, by putting up better signs to make it easier for visitors to navigate through the park so they can enjoy its attractions.
The report says further that the Indiana Dunes lakeshore is among the top tier of national parks threatened by climate change. It recommends the park develop an action plan to address those effects.
Located in Porter County, Ind., the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore was established in 1966, following a long struggle between preservationists and industrial interests that were constructing steel mills and power plants nearby. In the early 20th century, the tallest Indiana Dune, the Hoosier Slide, was leveled and hauled off in railroad boxcars by two glass manufacturing companies, the National Park Service recalls.
The movement to protect the Indiana Dunes was largely rooted in Chicago. The first dunes preservation group, the Prairie Club of Chicago, was formed in 1908 by University of Chicago botanist and ecologist Henry Cowles, West Side settlement house leader Thomas W. Allinson, and landscape architect Jens Jensen.
The dunes opened as an Indiana State Park in 1926. But it was not for another 40 years that the national lakeshore was finally approved by Congress, following an effort led not by an Indiana lawmaker, but by U.S. Sen. Paul H. Douglas (D-Ill.) of Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood.
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