Mount Baldy (sand dune)

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Mount Baldy
Indiana dunes.jpg
View of the dune
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Mount Baldy
Location of Mount Baldy in Indiana
Coordinates: 41°42′32″N86°55′41″W / 41.7089°N 86.9281°W / 41.7089; -86.9281
Range41°42'33"N 86°55'47"W
Age Holocene
Elevation38 m (126 ft)

Mount Baldy is a sand dune located in Indiana Dunes National Park. It is on the southern shore of Lake Michigan and is 126 feet tall. It is a wandering dune that moves or shifts every year, and is called a "living dune."

Contents

A view of Lake Michigan from Mount Baldy. Mount Baldy at Indiana Dunes National Park.jpg
A view of Lake Michigan from Mount Baldy.

Mount Baldy is accessible from U.S. Route 12 (also known as Dunes Highway) between the town of Pines and the western border of Michigan City, Indiana. It is a tourist attraction locally and regionally, drawing weekend and summer visitors from Chicago. Prior to the dune's closure, one could ascend its 302 steps and see Chicago's skyline. North of Mount Baldy is a swimmable beach which is also part of Indiana Dunes National Park.

Erosion

Mount Baldy Moving Inland.jpg

Due to the popularity with visitors climbing up the dune, the marram grass which had stabilized it was largely destroyed, and the dune has begun advancing southwards, threatening to overrun its parking lot. Accordingly, the National Park Service has rerouted trails and planted grass in hopes of slowing the dune. Visitors are no longer allowed to climb up the southern side of the dune.

The piers from nearby Michigan City, Indiana intensify erosion by blocking the natural sediment flow produced by longshore drift in Lake Michigan.

Decomposition chimney

In 2013, a void space anomaly in the dune led to a small child falling into a cylindrical shaft that collapsed and buried the child. It took three hours for the boy to be rescued from the 11-foot (3.4 m) pit. The geological process that is producing the never before studied anomalies appears to be related to the burial and decomposition of fungus-ridden black oak trees. [1] In 2016, scientists concluded that such anomalies in the moving or living dune are caused by the burial of trees that eventually decay leaving a hollowed out shaft beneath unsteady ground, named a "dune decomposition chimney." [2] The majority of the dune remains closed to visitors except on ranger-led tours; [3] however, the beach reopened in the summer of 2017. [4]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dune</span> Hill of loose sand built by aeolian processes or the flow of water

A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, flat regions covered with wind-swept sand or dunes, with little or no vegetation, are called ergs or sand seas. Dunes occur in different shapes and sizes, but most kinds of dunes are longer on the stoss (upflow) side, where the sand is pushed up the dune, and have a shorter slip face in the lee side. The valley or trough between dunes is called a dune slack.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lake Michigan</span> One of the Great Lakes of North America

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michigan City, Indiana</span> City in Indiana, United States

Michigan City is a city in LaPorte County, Indiana, United States. It had a population of 32,075 at the 2020 census. Located along Lake Michigan in the Michiana region, the city is about 45 miles (72 km) east of Chicago and is 40 miles (64 km) west of South Bend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Beverly Shores, Indiana</span> Town in Indiana, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indiana Dunes National Park</span> United States National Park in Indiana

Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha). Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant on the west. This area's conservation scheme is enhanced by the older Indiana Dunes State Park. To the west of the steel plant lies West Beach and a small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Hoosier Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore</span> U.S. National Lakeshore on Lake Superior

Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore is a U.S. National Lakeshore in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States. It extends for 42 mi (68 km) along the shore of Lake Superior and covers 73,236 acres. The park has extensive views of the hilly shoreline between Munising and Grand Marais in Alger County, with picturesque rock formations, waterfalls, and sand dunes.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Northwest Indiana</span> Sub-region of Indiana, US

Northwest Indiana, nicknamed The Region after the Calumet Region, is an unofficial region of northern Indiana, United States that is located at the northwestern corner of the state. Though there is no official definition of the region, it is based on the Gary, Indiana Metropolitan Division, which comprises Jasper, Lake, Porter and Newton counties in Indiana, and the Michigan City-La Porte, IN Metropolitan Statistic Area, which comprises LaPorte, with unofficial definitions also including Starke and Pulaski counties. This region neighbors Lake Michigan and parts of it are in the Chicago metropolitan area. According to the 2020 Census, the largest definition of Northwest Indiana has a population of 866,965 and is the state's second largest urban area after the Indianapolis Metropolitan Area. It is also the home of the Indiana Dunes, parts of which have been preserved through conservation efforts. The town of Ogden Dunes houses the Hour Glass, a museum showcasing the ecological and conservation efforts of O. D. Frank.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Whitefish Dunes State Park</span> State park in Wisconsin, United States

Whitefish Dunes State Park is a 867-acre (351 ha) state park of Wisconsin on the eastern shore of the Door Peninsula. This day-use park preserves the most substantial sand dunes on the western shore of Lake Michigan. The remains of eight successive prehistoric Native American villages are on the National Register of Historic Places as Whitefish Dunes-Bay View Site. Cave Point County Park is an enclave inside the state park, allowing visitors free foot access to the state park by the shoreline trail connecting the parks.

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Leila (Lee) Botts was an American environmentalist known primarily for her work related to conservation and restoration of the Great Lakes. She founded two non-profit organizations, directed a subagency of the U.S. Department of the Interior in the administration of President Jimmy Carter, authored or co-authored a number of books and reports on environmental issues, served in the administration of the late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington, and co-produced a documentary film called Shifting Sands: On the Path to Sustainability, on the history of the Indiana Dunes region.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Devil's stovepipe</span>

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Mount Baldhead, also known as Mt. Baldy and Radar Hill, is a tall dune about seventy miles north of the Indiana border on the west shore of Michigan in Allegan County.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hoosier Slide</span> Historic sand dune

The Hoosier Slide was a large sand dune on the shore of Lake Michigan near Michigan City, Indiana. The 200-foot (61 m) dune was a popular tourist destination in the late 19th century, attracting visitors for the view from the top and to slide down the dune's face. At about the same time as it became a tourist attraction, it was found to be a good source of iron-rich sand that would make a light blue-tinted glass. The sand mining activity led to the dune's disappearance by 1920.

References

  1. Wei-Haas, Maya. "New Insights Behind the Sand Dunes That Swallowed a Boy". Smithsonian.com. Smithsonian Magazine. Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  2. Lavalley, Amy (July 3, 2016). "Mount Baldy remains closed; researchers closer to finding sand answers". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  3. Schulte, Laura (June 9, 2015). "Mount Baldy open for ranger-led tours this summer". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved April 30, 2019.
  4. Lavalley, Amy (May 6, 2017). "Mount Baldy beach will reopen, but dune where boy was buried will not". Chicago Tribune . Retrieved April 30, 2019.