Indiana Dunes National Park is a national park in the United States located in northwestern Indiana. It is managed by the National Park Service. Congress approved the park in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It was renamed the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park stretches about 15 miles (24 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 hectares). The eastern part of the park runs along the lakefront from Michigan City, Indiana, to the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant. This area benefits from the nearby Indiana Dunes State Park, which helps protect the land. West of the steel plant is West Beach, and a small area extends south along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western part of the park includes the shoreline from the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. Additional areas outside the main park include Pinhook Bog in LaPorte County to the east, the Heron Rookery in Porter County near the center of the park, and the Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve and Hobart Prairie Grove in Lake County, which is the western end of the park.

History

There is little evidence that Native American communities lived in permanent homes during the earliest years. Instead, most people lived in seasonal hunting camps. The first signs of permanent settlements came with the Hopewell culture, which occupied the Ohio Valley. Five groups of mounds have been found in the dunes area. These mounds date from about 200 BCE (Goodall Focus) to 800 CE (early Mississippian), but this permanency was short-lived. In the 1500s, European exploration and trade changed the environment. Conflicts between tribes and competition from Europeans influenced how tribes interacted. Some groups moved west, while others tried to control large trading areas. The dunes remained an important hunting ground for many villages.

By the 19th century, Native American villages were again found in the area, but European settlers soon arrived. Joseph Bailly was the first recorded settler in the dunes. He moved from trading villages near Niles, Michigan, and settled along the Calumet River. Other settlers followed, and communities like Chesterton, Porter, Tremont, and the Town of the Pines developed.

City West was one of several "ghost towns" in the dunes. Built as a competitor to Chicago in 1837, it failed during an economic crisis that summer. Parts of the town were later removed for lumber, and a fire in the 1850s destroyed what remained. Today, most of the coastline is used for homes, factories, and businesses, with some areas kept as public parks.

In 1899, a publication in the Botanical Gazette by Henry Chandler Cowles, a botanist from the University of Chicago, highlighted the unique plants in the dunes. This led to efforts to protect the area. In 1916, National Parks Director Stephen Mather discussed creating a "Sand Dunes National Park" in Chicago. Another reason for preservation was the loss of the Hoosier Slide, a large dune whose sand was used for glass manufacturing by companies like Ball Brothers and Hemingray Glass Co. By 1920, the Hoosier Slide was gone, and a power plant now stands on its site. In 1926, Indiana Dunes State Park opened. In the 1950s, plans for a "Port of Indiana" increased interest in protecting the dunes. The Save the Dunes Council, including leaders like Dorothy Richardson Buell and Hazel Hannell, worked to buy land. Their first success was purchasing 56 acres (23 ha) in Porter County, known as the Cowles Tamarack Bog. In 1966, a law created the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Over time, the park expanded through four additional bills in 1976, 1980, 1986, and 1992, growing to more than 15,000 acres (61 km²).

In 2017, a bill to rename Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as Indiana Dunes National Park was introduced by Representative Pete Visclosky and Senators Todd Young and Mike Braun, with earlier support from Senator Joe Donnelly. The National Park Service opposed the change, stating it would not fit naming rules and that the dunes are more similar to lakeshores and seashores than national parks, which are usually larger.

The bill, H.R. 1488, passed in the House in November 2017 but was not voted on in the Senate. It was later included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2019 and signed by President Donald Trump on February 15, 2019. This created the 61st National Park in the United States and the first in Indiana.

Geography

The creeks and rivers in the national park include:

• Dunes Creek flows north and is 4.3 miles (6.9 km) long. It receives water from the Great Marsh tributary on its eastern side and the West Branch tributary, which drains Cowles Bog. The creek travels through coastal sand dunes and empties into Lake Michigan.

• East Arm Little Calumet River, also called the "East Branch Little Calumet River," is a 22.1-mile (35.6 km) section of the Little Calumet River. It begins near Holmesville, Indiana, in New Durham Township, LaPorte County, and flows west to Porter County. The river is diverted to the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway and Lake Michigan.

• Salt Creek is a 24.0-mile (38.6 km) tributary of the East Arm Little Calumet River. It starts south of Valparaiso in Porter County, Indiana, and flows north until it joins the East Arm Little Calumet River just before it exits to Lake Michigan via the Port of Indiana-Burns Waterway.

• Trail Creek flows north by northwest and is 7.3 miles (11.7 km) long. Its main stream begins where the West Branch Trail Creek and East Branch Trail Creek meet in LaPorte County, Indiana. The creek flows through the Michigan City harbor and empties into Lake Michigan.

Climate

According to the Köppen climate classification system, Indiana Dunes National Park has a hot summer Humid continental climate (Dfa). The United States Department of Agriculture states that the plant hardiness zone at Indiana Dunes National Park, at an elevation of 614 ft (187 m), is 6a. This zone has an average annual extreme minimum temperature of −9.4 °F (−23.0 °C).

The most important feature of Indiana Dunes National Park is Lake Michigan. The lake influences weather conditions that can affect safety and enjoyment in the area.

• Winter: During winter, shelf ice can form. This happens when winter winds push ice from Lake Michigan onto the beaches. As the ice accumulates, it creates long ridges that form a landscape resembling the Arctic. Much of this ice floats and may be unsafe to walk on because it can contain air pockets that may cause people to sink. Rescue efforts in such conditions are very difficult.
• Summer: In summer, rip currents can develop in Lake Michigan. These occur suddenly and can pull swimmers far away from the shore. Rip currents are most common on days with strong north winds. When wind pushes water toward the shoreline, the water becomes trapped between the beach and the first sandbar. As the wind continues, the water builds up until it flows back through a narrow channel in the sandbar, creating a current that rushes into the lake. Anything or anyone caught in this current is carried away from the shore.

Geology

The Lake Michigan Basin was formed during the Wisconsin Glacial Period. The Michigan Lobe of the continental glacier began to move northward more than 20,000 years ago, creating the southern shore of the Lake Michigan Basin.

The Valparaiso Moraine is the main landform that shaped the landscape of the Indiana Dunes about 40,000 years ago. Inside the curve formed by the Valparaiso Moraine are two younger moraines, the Tinley Moraine and the Lake Border Moraine. Each of these moraines acted as a dam across the southern path where melted glacier water flowed. When the water found a low area in the moraines, the water levels dropped, leaving behind a series of shorelines and dune ridges.

The Calumet Shoreline is the oldest visible shoreline of Lake Michigan. It appears as a sand ridge along Ridge Road in Lake and Porter Counties, Indiana. Two older shorelines, the Tolleston and Glenwood Shorelines, are harder to see and are located farther south in those counties.

During times when glaciers moved backward, there were periods of stability. During these times, glacial lakes formed along the southern edges of the glaciers, blocked by the moraines into the Lake Michigan Basin. Four major glacial lake periods helped shape the Indiana Dunes. These include Glacial Lake Chicago (14,000 years ago), Glacial Lake Algonquin (9,000 years ago), Glacial Lake Chippewa (7,000 years ago), and the Nipissing Great Lakes stage (4,000 years ago). After the glaciers completely left the Lake Michigan Basin following the Nipissing stage, the same forces that created dunes near the current shoreline also expanded the shoreline itself. Water currents along the shore, called longshore drift, moved sand southward along the eastern side of Lake Michigan. When these currents met streams carrying water from inland, sandbars formed, pointing in the direction of the current. If the currents were strong, such as when the Glenwood Shoreline was formed, shallow bays would develop with wide sand spits between each bay and the lake. Over time, these sand spits connected to the shoreline, forming interdunal ponds. Each sand spit became a dune ridge. As the ponds filled with water and the wind built the outer ridges higher, the ponds dried up, leaving only a stream, like the Little Calumet River today, south of the state and national parks. As the shoreline moved northward, new ridges formed along with additional streams, which were slower and weaker, repeating the process. To the west of the Indiana Dunes, Wolf Lake in Hammond, Indiana, marks the western edge of the dunes. Here, the same process occurs, with sand and sand spits moving eastward along the western shore. Today, the area is shaped by the remains of wetlands and lakes formed between dunes or sand spits over 40,000 years.

Flora and fauna

Indiana Dunes National Park is located in the central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion. According to the A. W. Kuchler U.S. Potential Natural Vegetation Types, the park has an Oak/Hickory (100) potential vegetation type and an Eastern Hardwood forest, also known as Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest (26) potential vegetation form.

The park includes habitats for several rare plants and animals. It has more than 1,400 species of vascular plants, ranking it 8th in total plant species among all units of the National Park System. At least two plant species are on the Federal list of Threatened and Endangered Species:
• Mead's milkweed (Asclepias meadii)
• Pitcher's thistle (Cirsium pitcheri)

Several other plants are on the list of state Threatened and Endangered Species. Populations of each plant group are estimated to be around 100–120 individual plants. These include:
• White baneberry (Actaea pachypoda)
• Virginia snake root (Aristolochia serpentaria)
• Shooting star (Dodecatheon meadia)
• American columbo (Frasera caroliniensis)
• Pink corydalis (Corydalis sempervirens)

Among the federally threatened and endangered wildlife are:
• Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis)
• Eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus catenatus)
• Rufa Red knot (Calidris canutus rufa)
• Piping plover (Charadrius melodus)

The park also has habitat suitable for the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus).

Indiana Dunes National Park is home to a wide variety of wildlife, including white-tailed deer, red fox, raccoons, opossums, cottontail rabbits, various rodents, Canada geese, gulls, squirrels, hawks, turkey vultures, mallards, great blue herons, songbirds, and garter snakes. Recent records show that North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) and bobcat (Lynx rufus) began returning to the area in 2011 and 2018, respectively. As of 2023, the Indiana Audubon Society has observed nearly 370 bird species living in or migrating through the Indiana Dunes.

The park has over 369 species of flowering plants. Thirteen of these are considered threatened or in danger of extinction. Additionally, four invasive flowering plants are on the list. Some of the most common spring flowers include the May apple, buttercups (six varieties), and violets (14 varieties). Summer brings orchids (five varieties) and goldenrod (11 varieties).

Invasive plants are species introduced to an area that grow quickly and take over native plants. There are 54 such species in the dunes.

In October 1920, a rare Arctic three-toed woodpecker was captured a mile west of Dune Park Station. Later that month, another male was captured east of Dune Park Station. One was digging for grubs, and the other was flying nervously between trees.

In May 1919, a clay-colored sparrow was found near Dune Park. It was part of a larger flock of Harris’s sparrow migrating along the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Several species of plants and animals have disappeared from the dunes. Few can be clearly identified. Among those thought to be gone are listed below.

Alien or exotic species are plants and animals not native to the area. These plants can be classified as invasive if they grow quickly, take over other plants, and threaten the survival of native species. Among plants found in the park, the following are considered exotic. Those marked with an asterisk (*) are listed as invasive.

On May 15 and 16, 2009, the park hosted an All Taxa Biological Diversity survey. In a 24-hour period, as part of the BioBlitz, 2,000 students and thousands of volunteers surveyed the park for every living species. John Francis, vice president of research, conservation, and exploration for the National Geographic Society, stated that 890 species had been inventoried. The tally at the end of the 24 hours was 890 species, including 26 amphibians and reptiles, 101 birds, 18 fish, 27 fungi, 11 mammals, 410 plants, and 178 insects. By June 1, the total had risen to 1,200 unique species.

Natural areas

Calumet Prairie is a partnership between the National Park Service and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve is located in the northern part of the land, between Interstate 90 to the north and the Little Calumet River to the south. The National Park Service owns the southern half of this area.

Cowles Bog, a National Natural Landmark, is a wetland complex that includes bogs, fens, marshes, swamps, wet meadows, and ponds. It is named after biologist Henry Chandler Cowles. Located south and west of Dune Acres, Indiana, Cowles Bog is the only remaining part of the "Central Dunes," where Cowles studied how ecosystems change over time. The area is drained by Dunes Creek, which flows to Lake Michigan at the Indiana Dunes State Park swimming beach. A National Park trail connects Mineral Springs Road to Cowles Bog.

The Great Marsh is a wetland between sand dunes, just south of the dune ridge overlooking Lake Michigan. It stretches from steel plants in Burns Harbor, 12 miles east to County Line Road near Michigan City. A century ago, the marsh was a home for many birds that relied on its plants. In the late 1800s, ditches were dug to drain the marsh, creating three areas where water flows and lowering the water level. As water levels changed, new plants and trees grew, replacing the wildlife that depended on the original wetland.

Restoration
Starting in 1998, the national lakeshore began restoring the marsh by closing Derby Ditch and repairing 500 acres. The work included:
– Plugging pipes
– Filling ditches
– Building levees with channels that let water flow over
– Planting native plants, such as seeds or young plants
– Removing non-native plants and trees

The heron rookery is located along the East Arm of the Little Calumet River in the northeast corner of Porter County. It is separated from the main part of the park and can be reached from County Road 600 East, south of County Road 1400 North. The rookery is a hardwood forest. The great blue herons that once nested there are no longer present, but many wildflowers grow there in spring.

Hobart Prairie Grove is an area with forested ravines along the west shore of Lake George. It preserves wetlands, prairie remnants, white oak flatlands, and a rare bur oak savanna. Covering about 300 acres, the grove has 343 native plant species and supports many birds and animals. The soil is mostly silt and clay with some sand, which helps support a wide variety of life. The Hobart Woodland trail is a 0.05-mile walk to an overlook on Lake George from the Oak Savannah rail trail. The Oak Savannah rail trail runs from North Hobart Road, Hobart, to South Colfax Street, Griffith. Of the trail’s 9-mile length, 2 miles pass through Hobart Prairie Grove. The trail follows the old Elgin, Joliet and Eastern Railroad route and connects to the Prairie Duneland rail trail, continuing east to Chesterton.

Hoosier Prairie, a National Natural Landmark, is a 430-acre tallgrass prairie near Griffith, Indiana. It is a separate part of the park, owned and managed by the Indiana Department of Natural Resources as a state nature preserve. Over 574 plant species have been observed growing in this prairie.

Miller Woods is located in Miller Beach, Indiana. It is accessed through the Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education on Lake Street. The area has a ridge and swale topography, with ridges made of beach and dune sand from the post-Glacial Lake Nipissing period about 3,000 years ago. Swales are the depressions between ridges, often filled with ponds or marshes.

Mnoké Prairie is an area being restored as a prairie in the central part of the park along Beam Street. The name was suggested by Potawatomi elders, with "mno" meaning "good" and "ké" meaning "earth." It is pronounced "mno-ca." The Little Calumet River Trail provides access to the prairie, which is reachable from the Mnoké Prairie parking lot on Beam Street.

Mount Baldy is a sand dune at the east end of the park. Standing 123 feet tall, it is one of the tallest dunes on Lake Michigan’s southern shore. It is a "living dune" that moves about 4 feet each year. Located on U.S. Route 12 between the Town of Pines and Michigan City, Mount Baldy was once accessible for hiking, but most of the dune, including the top, is closed to protect native plants and prevent injuries. An alternative trail leads visitors near the dune’s crest, offering views of Lake Michigan, Chicago’s skyline, and the south shore.

Pinhook Bog, a National Natural Landmark, is a separate part of the national park. The quaking peat bog is near U.S. Route 421, about 9 miles south of Michigan City. It formed from a hill left by melting ice 14,000 years ago. The acidic bog is known for pitcher plants and other wetland species. Access to the bog is limited to ranger-led guided tours.

Historic areas

Joseph Bailly was a fur trade pioneer. In 1822, he established a trading post here. He also built a home that he lived in until his retirement. His retirement house was later adapted into his last home, which still exists today. The Homestead was named a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1962.

The Chellberg family later lived on the property. They built a farm on the sandy soil there. As of 2008, the park keeps a heritage farm on the Chellberg land. The Bailly family cemetery is located on the northern edge of the property.

The Bailly Cemetery is located half a mile north of the homestead. It is on a sandy bluff that once had a view of Lake Michigan. Today, the area is covered with trees, and the lake is no longer visible. Many changes have happened since the first burial in 1827.

Joseph Bailly buried his only son, Marie, in the fall of 1827 on a sandy knoll. He placed an oak cross and a three-sided shelter there. After 1866, the area became more crowded with other families. Some families used the cemetery for their own burials. However, in 1866, Rose Howe, Joseph Bailly’s granddaughter, fenced the family plots and asked other families to move their relatives to other cemeteries. In 1879, she added walls and an iron gate to the north of the cemetery.

In 1914, Rose Howe took more steps to protect the cemetery. She filled the area inside the wall with sand. Stone steps replaced the gate, creating a path for people to walk. An oak cross was placed on top of the new ground, continuing the tradition started by her grandfather. Rose Howe died in 1916 while in California. She was brought back to Indiana in 1917 and was the last person buried in the family cemetery.

The Century of Progress Architectural District is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is in the east part of the park. The district has five buildings from the Homes of Tomorrow Exhibition at the 1933 Century of Progress World’s Fair in Chicago.

In 1941, the Good Fellow Club of U.S. Steel created a camp for children in Gary. The camp operated until 1977. It offered outdoor activities and a chance to leave the city for a week or more. The camp used tent cabins with a central restroom and shower house. A main lodge on a hill provided meals and had a trading post with a bowling alley.

The national park acquired three Lustron houses. The Jacob Klien House was moved to Beverly Shores and placed on a dune overlooking the lake. The Schulof house was moved to Porter by the Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana. The Powell house remains inside the park on Lakefront Drive, but it is not accessible.

The Swedish Farmsteads in Porter County, Indiana, show how many rural communities were settled by a large group of people from Sweden. These communities influenced the religious and social aspects of the area. Swedish immigration was highest between 1840 and 1920. In 1910, about one in five Swedes in the world lived in the United States.

Recreation

The park has 15 miles (24 km) of beaches and includes sand dunes, bogs, marshes, swamps, fens, prairies, rivers, oak savannas, and woodland forests. It is also famous for its singing sands. Over 350 bird species have been seen in the park. It has one of the most varied plant communities in the U.S. National Park System, with 1,418 types of vascular plants, including 90 that are threatened or endangered. The Indiana Dunes area is special because it has both Arctic and boreal plants, like bearberry, and desert plants, like prickly pear cactus.

First-time visitors often visit the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center at U.S. Route 20 and Indiana Route 49, near Porter. This center has a video, brochures, hands-on exhibits, and a gift shop. It is free for the public.

Camping is available at the Dunewood Campground on U.S. Route 12. The campground has an RV dump station and two loops with trailer-accessible sites (some with pull-through drives). All sites have grills, picnic tables, and access to restrooms with running water and showers. There are a limited number of walk-in sites in the Douglas Loop.

The park offers bird watching, camping, 45 miles (72 km) of hiking, fishing, swimming, horseback riding, and cross-country skiing. Cycling is available on the Calumet Trail, a crushed limestone multiuse trail that runs through the eastern part of the park. It connects to Indiana Dunes State Park and communities like Beverly Shores, the Town of Pines, and Mount Baldy near Michigan City, Indiana. The Great Marsh Trail opened in 2010 and has an accessible, paved section for wheelchairs, which opened in fall 2012. The trail is off Broadway at the east end of the park. The park has about 2 million visitors each year. Rules state that visitors must not feed wildlife, including seagulls, deer, or raccoons. Collecting crinoid fossils on the beach is not allowed. Using a metal detector is also prohibited, as in all national parks.

Interpretation employees provide free walks and talks throughout the park. The Singing Sands, the park’s official newspaper, is published twice a year and lists Interpretation-led activities. Events in 2013 showed that unexpected sinkholes can form on large dunes. Scientists believe these are caused by buried trees that decay over time, creating cavities.

Indiana Dunes has many short trails and a few longer trails:

• Paul H. Douglas Trail (formerly the Miller Woods Trail) is near Gary’s Miller Beach community. It starts at a parking lot north of the Douglas Center for Environmental Education.
• Tolleston Dune Overlook is a short, accessible walk through the treetops to a dune ridge overlooking the inland marsh. The Tolleston Dune Trail is a 3-mile (4.8 km) loop through the marsh and oak savannas. Both trails start along U.S. 12, east of the Porter-Lake County Line Road and the West Beach unit of the park in Ogden Dunes.
• Succession Trail is at West Beach. It climbs into the high dunes and is mostly on boardwalks and stairways. The trail is about 1 mile (1.6 km) long.
• Bailly-Chellberg Trails include two loops through the historic Bailly Homestead and Chellberg Farm areas. The 2.5-mile (4.0 km) trail takes visitors through a second-growth forest where trees were once removed for farming or logging. The north spur includes a visit to the Bailly Cemetery.
• Little Calumet River Trail allows visitors to see a restored prairie and the floodplain of the East Arm Little Calumet River. This 2.2-mile (3.5 km) trail connects to the Bailly-Chellberg Trails via Howe Road.
• Cowles Bog Trail is off North Mineral Springs Road, near the Dune Acres guard shack. This 5-mile (8.0 km) loop is one of the most rugged trails in the park. It passes through wetlands, dunes, and Lake Michigan. The trail ends near the Mineral Springs Road parking area.
• Calumet Dune Trail is fully accessible from the Calumet Dunes Interpretive Center (Kemil Road at U.S. 12). It is 0.8 miles (1.3 km) long and paved. Visitors can see a mature wetland forest.
• Glenwood Dune Horse and Hiking Trail connects to the far western end of the Calumet Dune Trail. The 6.4-mile (10.3 km) horse trail is accessible from its own parking lot at U.S. 20 near Kemil Road. Visitors must bring their own horses.

The Marquette Plan is a strategy to improve the lakeshore in Indiana. It includes a 50-mile (80 km) trail connecting Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan communities along Lake Michigan. The plan includes trails for biking, hiking, and kayaking.

The Lake Michigan Water Trail was designated a National Recreation Trail in 2011. It currently stretches 45 miles (72 km) from Chicago’s Northerly Island to Michigan City’s Millennium Plaza.

The trail will connect to major parks and cultural and natural sites. The 9-mile (14 km) Calumet Trail will eventually link the eastern and western parts of Indiana Dunes National Park. The 3-mile (4.8 km) Porter Brickyard Trail, opened in 2012, connects community trails to the Calumet Trail. The Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission is leading the project with help from local governments, the National Park Service, private landowners, and the American Planning Association.

West Beach, near U.S. Route 12 and County Line Road, is on the border of Gary and Portage, Indiana. It is a separate section of

Education

• Maple Sugar Time: Every spring, for two weeks, visitors can learn how to make maple sugar. They see how Native Americans collected sap and learn about maple trees and early settlers’ sugaring methods. In the sugar shack, sap is boiled to make maple sugar and syrup.
• Kids’ Fun at the Visitor Center: Each Sunday afternoon, a ranger helps children explore the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center and enjoy activities.
• Paul H. Douglas Center Open House: During spring and fall, families and a ranger can visit Miller Woods. At the Paul H. Douglas Center, a new program is offered each month from 1:00 to 4:00 pm.
• Threatened Lake Michigan: Several times a year, visitors and a ranger at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center learn about dangers to Lake Michigan. From 1:00 to 2:00 pm, they study invasive species like the spiny water flea, round goby, and zebra mussel. They also learn how to stop these species from harming the lake.
• Spring Blooms Hike: A ranger meets visitors at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center and takes them on a carpool trip to a trail. There, they look for wildflowers and signs of spring. This happens several times each spring from 1:00 to 3:00 pm.

Indiana Dunes National Park works with the nonprofit American Passenger Rail Heritage Foundation to offer educational programs for train passengers on the South Shore Line. On certain Saturdays, guides from the APRHF Rail Rangers travel between Millennium Station and South Bend Airport Station. They explain the park and other sights passengers see outside the train windows.

During the school year, Indiana Dunes National Park and the Dunes Learning Center provide training for K–12 teachers. Workshops include experts, hands-on activities, and park adventures. Illinois and Indiana teachers can earn continuing education units (CEUs) or continuing recertification units (CRUs) for each workshop. Teachers who want graduate credit can get it through Indiana University Northwest or Chicago State University. Workshops are held at the Dunes Learning Center.

The park has a partnership with Poland’s Kampinos National Park.

Accessibility

The park can be reached by car from U.S. Route 12. Train access is available through the South Shore Line at the Dune Park station.

Indiana Dunes is trying to make it easier to reach beach areas. Getting to the waters of Lake Michigan is a difficult task. Right now, two beach areas are considered easy to reach: West Beach, Portage Lakefront, and Riverwalk.

Accessible parking and restrooms are available throughout the park. A standard wheelchair can be borrowed at the Paul H. Douglas Center.

• West Beach Bathhouse
• Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education
• Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center. Hearing Assist devices are available in the theater.

Facilities

• Dunewood Campground is located in the eastern part of the park, south of U.S. Route 12 near Broadway. The facility has 78 campsites, including 53 drive-in, some drive-through, and 25 walk-in. Both the Douglass and Mather loops have restrooms with showers and a site that is accessible for wheelchairs. The campground is open from April 1 through October 31. A fee is required to use the facility.
• Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center is located at 1215 N. State Road 49, just off State Route 49 south of the intersection with U.S. Route 20. The visitor center has exhibits about the national park and displays artwork created in the lakeshore area. The center is jointly operated by the National Park Service and the Porter County Visitor and Recreation Commission (PCCRVC). The visitor center is open daily, except on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.
• Bailly/Chellberg Contact Station is located in Porter on Mineral Springs Road, just north of U.S. 20. The station is closed most of the year, except during events. The parking area provides access to the Bailly Homestead and the Chellberg Farm.
• Dunes Learning Center, also known as the Indiana Dunes Environmental Learning Center, is located on Howe Road, west of the Bailly/Chellberg Contact Station, on the grounds of the former Good Fellow Club Youth Camp. Founded in 1998, the Dunes Learning Center is a nonprofit environmental education organization that partners with Indiana Dunes National Park to provide educational experiences.
• Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk is the newest facility at the national park. It is located along the Burns Waterway, near U.S. Steel’s Midwest Plant. It can be reached by following signs off Indiana State Road 249 past the steel mill. The area includes a fishing pier, a riverwalk, a hike-and-bike trail through restored dunes, beach access, and a 3,500-square-foot (330 m ) pavilion.
• West Beach Bathhouse is located in Portage, north of U.S. Route 12 on County Line Road. West Beach has plenty of parking, picnic shelters, and a bathhouse with showers. The bathhouse includes changing rooms, restrooms, and a lifeguarded beach. The Dune Succession Trail, West Beach Trail, and Long Lake Trail are all located in the West Beach area.
• Paul H. Douglas Center for Environmental Education is located in the far west part of the park, in the Miller Beach community of the City of Gary. It is just north of U.S. 20 and U.S. 12. The Education Center has classrooms for programs about environmental topics. Participation is usually during scheduled programs for schools and local organizations.

Gallery

• Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center
• Pavilion located at Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk
• Skyline of Chicago as seen from West Beach

Dunes National Park Association

In 2012, the Dunes National Park Association (DNPA) was created as a nonprofit group to help the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. The DNPA is supported by the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. Its main goal is to raise money to help the lakeshore and its activities, work to support the park, and teach the public about the many natural and cultural resources found in the national park.