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A geology tour of Lake County begins at the center the end of March. An annual plant sale is scheduled for the end of May. For details, call (219) 844-3188.

Spring 2002

Rare dune-and-swale topology harks back to original state of ridges near Lake Michigan; great spot for warblers

Lake County, Indiana

Gibson Woods Nature Preserve in Lake County, Indiana, is a rare and unusual place. Its 131 acres are one of the largest remnants in the Great Lakes region of the globally rare dune-and-swale topography, a landscape of alternating sand ridges and depressions created by the gradual northward retreat of the glacial Lake Chicago to the boundaries that contain Lake Michigan today.

Here visitors can see a prime example of the topographic features that characterized many thousands of acres in Northwest Indiana four millennia ago. The land has never been farmed, grazed, developed or mined for sand, though white pines may have been cut in some areas early in the last century.

The ridges support a rare black oak savanna and many tallgrass prairie plants. Columbine, lupine, golden Alexanders, puccoon, both red and yellow wood betony, and Indian paintbrush bloom early in the flowering season. The whole panoply of prairie grasses and flowers reach their height in August. Goldenrod and fringed gentian bring the summer to a blazing conclusion. The swales, which can become temporary wetlands, have been known to attract solitary sandpipers and yellow-crowned night-herons. They also provide habitat for yellow lady’s slipper in late spring.

These diverse habitats make the woods a haven for such creatures as Franklin’s ground squirrels and Blanding’s turtles. Visitors can find black gum trees as well as paper birch. Plans call for reintroducing the endangered Karner blue butterfly, which is found at nearby Tolleston Ridges and a few other sites in the region.

Gibson Woods has much in common with other high quality natural areas that, thanks to happenstance and citizen activism, have survived the industrialization of Indiana’s three lakeside counties. To the south, it nestles against Hammond’s pleasant Hessville neighborhood, once the home of famed author Jean Shepherd. A railroad track marks its northern boundary, and during a winter hike, at least, industrial structures are visible beyond the groaning locomotives.

Indeed, the preserve’s history is intertwined with that of railroads. The woods were named for an inn kept by David Gibson, whose place doubled as a station when the Michigan Central built the first line through Lake County in 1852. Gibson Woods might have disappeared beneath asphalt or home sites years ago if the railroad, like other major enterprises in the region, had not acquired and retained "surplus property" and, most importantly, left it alone.

Even before the property came on the market in the late 1970s, Joy Bower, the park’s outdoor education supervisor, knew the woods were a "special place." An enthusiastic naturalist and birder, she especially looked forward to late April and May when a procession of warblers, beginning with early arrivals like the yellow-rumped and an occasional pine warbler, followed by the black-throated green, black- burnian Cape May, and later by the Connecticut and mourning visit the woods on their way north. Worried that the woods would be transformed into an industrial site, she joined other citizens in urging local and state officials to protect them. "It took a lot of convincing," she recalls.

Finally, after a series of transactions involving the Penn Central, the Nature Conservancy and the Lake County Parks Department, and with the help of federal revenue-sharing funds, Gibson Woods became a county park and, in 1981, a state nature preserve.

Restoration efforts, says Bower, continue year-round.

The nature preserve is open daily from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The Environmental Awareness Center, 6201 Parrish Ave., opens at 11:00 a.m. and closes at 4:00 p.m. Interpretive tours are available and walking trails of up to two miles begin at the center. No wheeled vehicles or dogs are allowed. Picnics are permitted only at tables near the center. — Warren Buckler

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