100 years ago, Alice Gray chose to live in the dunes above for ten years, camping out, swimming nude, and eschewing the working life in Chicago, visible across the lake. She became known as ‘Diana of the Dunes’, and more than anyone else is responsible for the park. She protested the removal of the huge sand dunes for glass, industry and fill. She urged that the dunes be preserved in media interviews and at a speech to the Prairie Club.

The park comprises several sections, including a Heron Rookery, an Ice Age Bog, seven named beaches and a lake, besides the dunes themselves. There’s an eponymous state park within the bounds of the site. The ranger suggested that the 1 mile Dune Succession Trail which includes Diana’s Dunes above is the best in the park, but the attached 1 mile West Beach Loop Trail to Long Lake is worth taking too to see more birds. I saw well over a dozen species of birds, including the American Bittern, and there were turtles and evidence of beavers as well.

Unfortunately, sections of shoreline within the park are also taken by steel mills, power plants, train stations, and development. The hum of cars is constant and passing trains drown out the birdsong. A local dog-walker explained how many nests have been destroyed and how developers always seem to evade environmental restrictions. Once gone, these homes for wildlife will never return, given the fragile ecosystems and manmade pollution. Saving species means reserving more wetlands and restricting development, but everywhere I go, most folks seem more concerned with their lawns than the Climate Crisis.