Indiana Dunes Administrative History

"Indiana's Third Senator" Takes the Dunes Battle to Congress

Approaching Paul H. Douglas to herald the dunes preservation movement in Congress proved to be an excellent move. Although from Illinois, Douglas was no stranger to the Indiana Dunes. Following his 1931 marriage to Emily Taft, daughter of sculptor Lorado Taft, the couple built a summer cottage in the dunes. Summertime and weekends in the dunes with his family left an indelible mark on Douglas' soul. He regarded those times as "one of the happiest periods of our lives":

Like Anateus, I retouched the earth and became stronger thereby. We had rare privacy, with mornings of quiet study and work, afternoons of swimming and walks along the magnificent beach and in the fascinating back country.... What remained was idyllic and an ever—present source of physical and spiritual renewal. I seemed to live again in the simplicities of my boyhood. [11]

Dorothy Buell first approached Douglas to sponsor a bill to authorize an "Indiana Dunes National Park" in the spring of 1957. Douglas, familiar with the negative stance of the Indiana Congressional Delegation, targeted Senator Homer Capehart. Douglas suggested that Capehart could become a hero by leading the dunes effort and thereby have the Federal park bear his name. Intrigued, Capehart told Douglas he first had to consult with the "boys in Indianapolis." The inevitable answer came: the boys "have other plans." Douglas decided he would introduce the legislation himself. Fittingly, he unveiled the bill to establish "Indiana Dunes National Monument" in Dorothy Buell's home on Easter Sunday 1958. He cited the popularity of the Save the Dunes Council as an indication of widespread public support enabling him to go against the wishes of Indiana's political and business community. [12]

Few could have predicted the magnitude of the vehemence unleashed on Senator Douglas. Media, industry, and political organizations combined accusing Douglas with interfering in Indiana's affairs, serving as a Chicago carpetbagger plotting against Indiana's economic development, and working to establish a park to placate the minorities of Chicago. Douglas' opponents derisively referred to him as the "Third Senator from Indiana." [13] Indignant Hoosiers pointed to an underground coalition of Illinois politicians and industrialists who were hiding behind Senator Douglas' "Save the Dunes" movement in order to stop the Port of Indiana. Douglas' nefarious coalition was also believed to be joined by dunes area industry which hoped to keep competitors out. [14]

Nevertheless, Paul Douglas introduced his bill, S. 3898, on May 26, 1958. The stirring speech delivered on the Senate floor was a forerunner of the conservation movement which blossomed in the late 1960s. It provided for an Indiana Dunes National Monument composed of 3,800 acres in the Central Dunes. On the same day, Representative John Saylor of Pennsylvania—the home state of Bethlehem Steel—submitted a companion bill in the House, H.R. 12689. [15]

The Council undertook a nationwide petition drive to support the legislation. They produced a dramatic film depicting the impending industrial peril facing the dunes. Council members developed lobbying skills by visiting all House and Senate members, preparing testimony, and learning the ropes of the legislative process. Their efforts began paying off as the national press corps and conservation groups such as the Izaak Walton League endorsed the movement. [16]

The key players on both sides of the issue realized the battle would be bitter and protracted. It soon became apparent to Douglas and the Save the Dunes Council that formidable political opposition would succeed in bottling the legislation up in the respective Interior and Insular Affairs subcommittees. Close cooperation with the Federal Government's principal preservation agency, the Department of the Interior's National Park Service, was vital in the fight to save the dunes.

The Save the Dunes Council already had an advocate with the Department of the Interior. Earl H. Reed, Jr., a Council member, also served on the Secretary of the Interior's Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments. It was largely through Reed's prodding that the Advisory Board in April 1958 unanimously called for preserving the dunes by incorporation into the National Park System. [17] Simultaneous with the dunes controversy in Congress was the initiation of the National Park Service's Great Lakes Survey which would evaluate the feasibility of Federal park areas on the shores of the Great Lakes, including Indiana's embattled lakeshore.

The Great Lakes Survey

The greatest difficulty dunes conservationists had to address was to justify preserving an urban recreation area in light of the traditional American ideal of a national park. Comparing the model of Yellowstone National Park, reserved from the public domain in a wilderness setting, to Indiana Dunes was difficult for many citizens. United States Government policy since the inception of the republic was to encourage private, capitalist development and settlement of the continent. The 1872 authorization of Yellowstone itself was a milestone in that a significant segment of nature was reserved for the public good. The Yellowstone ideal tended to preclude less spectacular, recreational areas like the Indiana Dunes where population and development pressures threatened to envelop the land. [18]

Although omitted from its scope, the roots of the 1957—58 Great Lakes Survey can be found in the National Park Service's seashore preservation study conducted with Civilian Conservation Corps workers in 1934—35. The study identified potential national and state recreation areas along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts. Fifteen possible Park Service areas were targeted with Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, atop the list. Authorization for Cape Hatteras National Seashore came on August 17, 1937, and included seventy miles of seashore and 28,500 acres. Largely owned by the state, the remaining areas North Carolina purchased and donated to the National Park Service.

With the disruption of World War II, no more seashore legislation was successful until interest was revived in the initiative in the 1950s. By this time, few shoreline areas remained unspoiled and an incredible eighty—five percent of shoreline was privately owned. With dwindling shoreline available for public access and recreational purposes, it became clear the Federal Government had to act. Reviving the former 1934—35 study, those remaining potential park areas were re—evaluated. A separate aspect of this project, which was sponsored under the Park Service's MISSION 66 program, included the Great Lakes. Funded by entrepeneurs Paul Mellon and sister Alisa Bruce, the Great Lakes Survey began under the direction of Director Conrad L. Wirth. [19] Wirth called on Allen T. Edmunds to organize the effort. Edmunds relocated from the Washington Office to the Region V Office in Philadelphia to evaluate the remaining shoreline opportunities of the Great Lakes. Director Wirth cautioned Edmunds not to be overly optimistic. The effort to include Cape Hatteras in the National Park System had taken fifteen years. Wirth advised Edmunds not to get discouraged if nothing came out of the Great Lakes Survey. [20]

Survey activities took place in the summers of 1957 and 1958 to determine what segments of remaining shoreline qualified for preservation as natural, scenic, or recreation areas. Sixty—six units were identified. Five were targeted for potential inclusion in the National Park System: Pigeon Point (Minnesota), Huron Mountains and Pictured Rocks (both in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan), Sleeping Bear Dunes (lower Michigan), and Indiana Dunes (Indiana). The report cited the industrial and residential expansion in northwest Indiana. Outside of the Dunes State Park, five—and—a—half—miles of undeveloped lakeshore remained, but the area was targeted for expansion by three steel companies and the proposed deep—water harbor. The survey recommended that the Indiana Dunes merited further evaluation. Compilation and editing of the report delayed publication and distribution until early 1960. The preface of Our Fourth Shore: Great Lakes Shoreline Recreation Area Survey contained a message from Secretary of the Interior Fred A. Seaton. Reflecting the conservative position of the Eisenhower administration, Secretary Seaton stated the primary objective of the shoreline surveys was to help state and local governments identify new park areas. He instructed the Park Service to recommend no more than three areas as National Shoreline Recreation Areas. The three units, Seaton stated, would be selected from all of the candidates nominated from the Great Lakes, Pacific, Gulf, and Atlantic shorelines. [21]

In response to an inquiry from Senator Paul Douglas, the Park Service's Region V Office in Philadelphia dispatched a team in September 1958 to evaluate an area of undeveloped duneland west and south of Ogden Dunes. The team identified an additional 850 acres [22] which Douglas incorporated into a new 1959 bill, S. 1001. Park Service comments to the Department on S. 1001 were favorable, but there were a few amendments suggested. Park Service officials believed the designation of "National Seashore" was more appropriate than "National Monument." The Service also questioned the excluded areas around Dune Acres, Ogden Dunes, and Johnson Beach, preferring to consider all available land in order to have an area of sufficient size to accommodate heavy use. While the towns themselves should be excluded, the Service wanted unspoiled Johnson Beach to fall within the acquisition area. [23]

With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, the dunes controversy intensified. Hoosier politicians and businessmen were eager to exploit the economic prosperity promised by the linking of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean shipping lanes. The Advisory Board on National Parks, Historic Sites, Buildings and Monuments reaffirmed that the Indiana Dunes should be incorporated into the National Park System. Senate hearings in May 1959, saw Douglas and a large group of supporters pleading in vain for swift action on the dunes park bill. An equal number of opponents, from Indiana's Governor to the President of Midwest Steel Corporation, testified against the proposed park. Even as Douglas spoke, an increasing number of power—shovels were decimating the Central Dunes. The same spring, Midwest Steel dusted off its thirty—year—old construction documents and began building a finishing plant on 750 acres at Burns Ditch. Simultaneously, Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO) began clearing a 350—acre parcel to build a coal—fired generating plant west of Dune Acres. Douglas accused the industrialists of denuding as much duneland as possible in an effort to make the preservation argument moot. [24]

Despite the acrimony, Senate committee members expressed the desire for compromise, to find a way to accommodate both sides. They wanted to devise a formula whereby the Indiana Dunes could have a port and a park.