Story by Friends of Indiana Dunes
Mount Baldy is a 126-foot-tall sand dune located at the southern tip of Lake Michigan, lying near the eastern end of Indiana Dunes National Park and just west of Crescent Dune . This parabolic dune began forming some 4,000 years ago and is continually changing because of natural and man-made factors.
Mount Baldy was formed like most dunes within the Indiana Dunes National Park by waves depositing sand grains onto the beach and as the strong winds blow these sand grains keep moving until the wind stops blowing or they encounter a plant or some other obstacle and start accumulating. Over time, this process repeats and repeats until a sand dune is created.
Vegetation plays a major role in sand dune formation. Marram grass will thrive in this very dynamic environment of winds blowing the sand, alternatingly burying and uncovering this pioneering species. This grass’s rhizomatous root structure helps to anchor and stabilize the sand as the dune grows taller. Other vegetation (shrubs and trees) will begin to further stabilize the dune.
Somewhere in its past, a violent storm or dramatic change in wind direction drastically changed Mounty Baldy, removing all its vegetation that held it in place. Once Mount Baldy was not encumbered by vegetation it began to move and at an unnatural and alarmingly fast rate. Mount Baldy is also starving as more sand is moving away than is being replaced by wave and wind action.
The breakwater wall built at Michigan City at the time of the Civil War (covered in a WBW on 03/19/25) also has a significant impact on replenishment of sand at Mount Baldy. Analysis of aerial photos by Dr. Zoran Kilibarda of Indiana University Northwest helped determine that Mount Baldy had rolled inland nearly 440 feet between 1938 and 2006. Along its advance, Mount Baldy had buried trails, a staircase, and stands of 60 to 80-foot-tall black oaks. These findings led to banning the public from its steep inland side, but Mount Baldy continued to move at a rate of 4-5 feet per year and threatened its own parking lot.
On July 12, 2013, the unthinkable happened. A six-year-old boy raced up the lakefront side of Mount Baldy and about halfway up, he disappeared. It was later reported that he saw an opening in the sand and lowered himself in to see where it went. The successful rescue of the young boy and the subsequent research of Mount Baldy led to a phenomenon previously unknown to the scientific community.
Dr. Erin Argyilan of Indiana University Northwest was also on the beach that day taking measurements for her study of wind speed on Mounty Baldy. Since 2011, she been studying the changes in the dune’s overall shape – “Mount Baldy was flattening, it’s pancaking in the middle”. Even with her extensive scientific knowledge, what happened that day defied anything known to the geologic world. The park immediately decided to close all of Mount Baldy to the public, a wise decision as a month later another hole was discovered. Investigators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency using ground penetrating radar picked up 66 anomalies inside the dune. Argyilan was committed to scientifically determine the source of the holes.
In 2015 at the Geological Society of America conference, Dr. Argyilan presented her findings. The anomalies on Mount Baldy were dune decomposition chimneys that formed when a moving dune buries trees that subsequently decompose into hollowed chimneys underneath the sand. Further studies have looked at the fungal communities within the trees that led to the decomposition and their ability to produce hyphae that extended into the sandy walls along with cementing minerals that then held the sand in place and prevented collapse of the decomposition chimneys. Dr. Argyilan has left the university and now works for the National Park Service as the Education Coordinator at the Great Lakes Research and Education Center stationed at Indiana Dunes National Park. She continues to monitor both dune morphology and wind flow effects to facilitate both long and short-term restoration efforts at Mount Baldy.
Mount Baldy is no longer bald as marram grass has been planted all over the dune. The path to the beach is open year-round to the public but was rerouted slightly to ensure visitors’ safety. Please stay on the designated trail and allow the restoration projects to succeed. The Mount Baly Summit Trail remains closed and only accessed through ranger-led hikes. Check out the park’s website (https://nps.gov/indu/planyourvisit/calendar.htm) or Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/IndianaDunesNPS) for future hike dates and times.
The staff at the Indiana Dunes National Park are charged with protecting this large “living” dune and keeping it unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. They take their job seriously and have initiated several projects to slow the migration of Mount Baldy. With the help of the Army Corp of Engineers, sand has been periodically transported to Crescent Dune or to the Mounty Baldy beach itself to help with beach nourishment. Beginning in 1974, this has been an ongoing project but as mentioned in several WBW posts, beach nourishment does not completely offset the sediment losses. The Indiana Dunes National Park is again working on a plan to move sand from the Mount Baldy parking lots to the Crescent Beach area – dates for this project have yet to be determined.
Mount Baldy is a favorite place of this author and the success of the various restoration projects rests with all of us. Please obey the signs and stay only on designated trails and off the dune. Safety is priority one!
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Susie Young Baxter, CEO, has published PanoramaNOW Magazine for 31 years. Her hobbies are Camping, Boating, Hiking, Nature, Gardening and Outdoor Activities. She is an Artist, Graphic Designer, an Avid Seamstress, Dabbles in Homemade Crafts and Landscaping. Since her Father was a Health Teacher, she also likes homeopathic Health Solutions. Since blogging started over 10 years ago, PanoramaNow has been added to Newsbreak – a national news affiliate.
