Category: Landscapes

Tick, Tick, Ticking….

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To the casual observer the Great Marsh at the Indiana Dunes does not look much different from winter. But if you look close, you can see the beginnings of Spring emerging here and there. And if you stand still, quietly looking and listening… you can almost sense the impending spring bloom ticking… soon, very soon, there will be an explosion of colors all over the marsh. On this day, you could feel it.

(Click on any picture to see it full size.)

It had rained the night before I hit this trail. I always look for mosses here, they respond so quickly to the moisture and the way they hold on to the water is always fascinating.
The hairy edged leaves of emergent Lupine hold the water in the form of beautiful droplets.
Pussy Willow blossoms add small touches of intense color to the largely muted pallet of early spring down in the marsh.
Earlier in the year I watched a controlled burn being conducted in this part of the marsh. Now we see the first vibrant shoots of green and orange rising from the burn.
This particular area reminded me of “leafy greens” you buy at the grocery store.
Not everything green is soft and inviting. These things are every bit as nasty as they look, trust me on this.
Earth Star fungi are as beautiful as they are odd. This one has already released its spores and has disconnected from the rest of the fungus.

Exploration & Discovery

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Back in December the Indiana Dunes National Park conducted a controlled burn in the Derby Ditch region of the Great Marsh that I was able to observe in progress. A couple of months later I decided it was time to go exploring this part of the marsh which has been reclaimed from former residential use, but has not seen any restoration efforts yet. It is fun and interesting for me to explore areas like this just to see what I can find. The image above shows my track through this area as recorded by my GPS, which is a fun little gadget which will probably be the subject of a post of its own.

This is what the area looks like. Lots of standing water, soft mud and heavily overgrown with buckthorn and other assorted briar plants. Pushing through in the summer is difficult, and you would likely pick up about a pound of ticks in doing so.

But late fall through early spring it is more navigable. After the controlled burn, I wanted to see if I could make my way to some locations I had been trying to get to, where I suspected there should be some remains from the Century of Progress Colonial Village homes that were relocated here in the 1930’s.

When I arrived, the first thing I noticed was that the park had opened up Jones Rd. so that the fire fighters could access it for the controlled burn. Before the burn this abandoned road was heavily overgrown, but even so it was the best access point from which to enter the area. But with the road cleared it was so much easier going and off I went into the unrestored marsh.
Not too far down Jones Rd. from Broadway, is this area which I believe was once a botanical garden associated with the Beverly Shores Inn that was destroyed by fire in the 1970’s. The recent controlled burn here swept the area pretty good. I am very interested to see how it looks come spring.
As I pushed further into the marsh I eventually made it to the spot I had been trying to find. The combination of the controlled burn and the clearing of Jones Rd. made it relatively easy. Here I found the remains of a structure (a low wall in the center of the photograph) that I think may have been the Governor’s Mansion from the Colonial Village.

Why do I think I found the remnant of this particular building? Old maps of the area. I love maps in general and old historical ones in particular.

This promotional map indicates that the Governor’s Mansion was located in the general area I was exploring, south of Beverly Dr. and east of Broadway. However this map only shows the relative positions of things. To get a better idea where actual structures were located at that time I found an aerial photograph from the 1930’s.
The green X on this aerial photograph corresponds to the same location as the yellow X on my GPS track at the top of this post. So if the wall I found was not from the Governor’s Mansion itself, it was likely associated with it.

Ultimately I want to locate and ID the remains of all of these buildings in the Great Marsh. I consider this one such discovery. Was this a “discovery” of any significance? Was it even a discovery at all? I’d say no to both questions. The locations of these buildings is no secret, and many of them were still around when the park acquired them in the 1970’s. I enjoy exploring and learning new (to me) things about the history of the Indiana Dunes National Park. It is simple curiosity that draws me into these places and inspires me to research what was there before I started wandering around. It turns out that this beautiful nature area was very different not so long ago. Knowing more about this history gives me greater appreciation of the work done to restore it. So the “discovery” of these remains was a very cool moment for me personally.