Report on the Proposed Sand Dunes National Park, Indiana (Classic Reprint)

By Stephen T. Mather. Department of the I nterior, Wdshinffton, Decemier 20, 1916. My Dear Mr. Seoretary: I have the honor to submit herewith the results of my study of the Sand Dunes National Park project.. Senate resolution adopted September 7, 1916, imposed upon the Department of the Interior the duty of investigating and reporting to Congress the advisabihty of the securing, by purchase or otherwise, all that portion of the counties of Lake, Laporte, and Porter, in the State of I ndiana, bordering upon Lake Michigan, and commonly known as the Sand dunes, with a view that such lands be created a national park The department was also charged by this resolution with ascertaining the cost of acquiring the sand dunes for national park purposes, and the probable cost of maintaining the area as a national park. It was your desire that I personally undertake the investigation ordered by this Senate resolution and report my findings and observations to you for consideration. As no funds were made available by the Senate resolution to cover the expenses of conducting a thorough investigation and assembling data for presentation to Congress, the funds of the department were necessarily drawn upon to meet a considerable portion of these expenses. The cost of reporting a hearing which I found it advisable to hold in Chicago was defrayed by various organizations and individuals interested in the safeguarding of the dune areas in their natural state. My study of this national park project was made in Chicago, at Michigan City, I nd., and in the dune areas themselves, during the week commencing October 30. While I was a resident of Chicago on several occasions I had made pleasure trips to the sand dunes of I ndiana, and was quite famihar with their characteristics, but I deemed it expedient to make another trip in order that I might note any important changes in the sta
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)