THE SAND DUNE REGION AS A NATIONAL PARK. 263 



and Illinois. It was along the Lake Michigan beach that all of the overland 

 communication occurred between Fort Dearborn and Detroit in the early- 

 part of the last century. 



It would be a national calamity, "a calamity against nature" if the Dunes 

 are not saved. "There is no other spot with anything like the artistic, 

 scientific, historical and sociological characters and advantages so near a 

 great -^enter of population." The government of the United States should 

 provide this playground for the millions of boys and girls of the present and 

 of the centuries to come. 



What is to be done must be done soon because the lands are rapidly 

 becoming more valuable and if not obtained by the government will be given 

 over to manufacturing purposes. 



Let us hope that our Congress will rise to the occasion and give to central 

 United States this great area which is known to the scientists of the whole 

 world as the most unique of its kind, as a National Park. And further may 

 we ask that the Park be named for our Hoosier poet. The Riley National 

 Park of America. 



