Historical Archives
The Dune Acres Historical Committee maintains the Dune Acres archives which include pertinent news clippings, photos, audio and video tapes of residents interviewed on noteworthy Dune Acres events, correspondence on issues the Town has faced since 1922, and books by past and present Dune Acres authors. Click on a title below to read (Adobe PDF format) some of the information.
The History of Dune Acres - 75th Anniversary Celebration. Published in June 1998 to honor the 75th anniversary of the incorporation of Dune Acres. This is a long download (40 pages). Copies of this book may be purchased from the Dune Acres Historical Committee. It includes some of the material from Occasional Papers #1 through #10.
Park Purchase Plan (1952). Prepared in the early 1970's. It is an account of the purchase of 180 acres of land between the security office and East and West Roads, lying on either side of Mineral Springs Road.
Clubhouse and Former Guesthouse. Prepared in February 1990 as Occasional Paper #1.
Early History of Dune Acres. Prepared in May 1990 as Occasional Paper #2 from papers in the Calumet Regional Archives of Indiana University Northwest, taped interviews and conversations.
Town Founders. Prepared in April 1991 as Occasional Paper #3 from taped conversations.
Fires in Dune Acres. Prepared in April 1992 as Occasional Paper #4 from the March 24, 1949 issue of The Chesterton Tribune, the Record Book of Dune Acres Town Board, Volume I, and from personal recollections of residents.
Historical Background. Prepared in May 1993 as Occasional Paper #5 from the Dune Acres Town Board Records, Volume II, a memoir by Clarence Elder, and a report by Richard J. Smith.
Natural History of Dune Acres. Prepared in April 1995 as Occasional Paper #6. This paper is a much-edited and condensed excerpts from an interview with Barbara Plampin.
The Coming of the National Lakeshore. Prepared in June 1996 as Occasional Paper #7. Was the future of the southern shore of Lake Michigan to be completely industrialized, or could the Dunes be preserved as a natural area?
Post-War Dune Acres. Prepared in April 1997 as Occasional Paper #8-- a focused point of view.
Dune Acres Crises: Part I. The 1960's. Prepared in April 1997 as Occasional Paper #9. The story of the South Shore marshaling yard.
Dune Acres Crises: Part II. The 1970's. Prepared in June 1997 as Occasional Paper #10. The threatened nuclear power plant.
Early Aviation in the Duneland Area. Read the text of an August 13, 1999 interview with Howard Johnson, in which he talks about early aviation in our area. References to Jack Knight, who lived on Circle Drive in Dune Acres are included in the interview. (Text provided by Bev Hubbs.)
Log Homes of the 1930's. From the October 2000 Fall Party at the Clubhouse, "Back Home Again in Indiana," which began with a walk through the log homes at 25 Ridge Drive and at 12, 18, and 22 Circle Drive.
Dune Acres Water Pumps. Before we started buying our water from Indiana American Water Company we had a very nice water pumping station to supply our water needs for many, many decades, primarily for the east side of Town. This history was prepared in June 2009 by Irv Call.
Wind Storm, December 12, 2010. (Video) Great slabs of Dune Acres and Porter Beach foredunes are resting somewhere at the bottom of Lake Michigan after 30-foot waves battered the shoreline during the lake-effect snowstorm. The waves blew well past the level stretch of beach proper—a strip a couple of hundred feet wide—to reach halfway up the foredune and in place to cut out swaths of marram grass.
Driftwood from the Beach. A history of the area surrounding Dune Acres. Published in the January 2006 issue of The Beachcomber by Cheryl Evans.
The Northern Border of the State of Indiana. Excerpted from a paper entitled "The Establishment of the Northern Border of the State of Indiana" by William F. McNabney, Ed.D., provided by his friend and long time Dune Acres resident John Wilhelm. Did you know that Indiana almost did not have any Lake Michigan shore line? We might be living in Michigan. In 1815 when Indiana petitioned Congress for statehood they pleaded for an extension of their northern border to the north. When Congress passed the Enabling Act on April 19, 1816, for Indiana to become a state, it also moved the Indiana northern boundary "ten miles to the north of the southerly extreme of Lake Michigan."