INDIANAPOLIS — Bipartisan legislation was filed this week in the U.S. House and Senate to re-designate the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore as America's 61st national park.
U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Gary, is the sponsor of House Bill 684, and U.S. Sens. Todd Young, R-Ind., and Mike Braun, R-Ind., are co-sponsors of Senate Bill 168.
Both proposals seek to establish the first national park in Indiana, which the lawmakers believe will provide greater recognition to the natural beauty of the Dunes, draw more visitors to the Region and grow the Northwest Indiana economy.
"We need to tout Indiana's rich history and our natural assets to make our state even more attractive to visitors and potential residents," Young said.
"I'm going to keep working with the National Park Service and other stakeholders to identify a path forward for this designation."
Last year, the National Park Service helped scuttle a House-approved Dunes National Park measure after its acting director told a Senate subcommittee the Trump administration preferred the Dunes remain a national lakeshore, since it lacks the variety of resources and large land and water areas common to national parks.
However, that standard is not absolute. The nation's newest national park — Gateway Arch in St. Louis — was established in February 2017 and contains just 193 acres, compared to the more than 15,000 acres of beaches, wetlands, savannahs, sand dunes, hiking trails and recreational facilities at the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
"With its beautiful shoreline and scenic trails, Indiana Dunes is a state treasure that deserves the recognition of a national park," Braun said.
Indeed, the first director of the National Park Service, Stephen Mather, recommended in 1916 that the Dunes become a national park due to its unique biological diversity and geological features.
That initial effort stalled due to World War I. Local conservation work then led to establishing the Indiana Dunes State Park in 1925 and Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in 1966.
Lorelei Weimer, executive director of Indiana Dunes Tourism, said the Dunes would be the seventh most popular national park in the country with more than 3.6 million visitors a year, if you add the current visitor totals for the National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park, which would continue to be state-owned.
Visclosky said he's grateful that Young, Braun, the other House members representing Indiana, as well as Region tourism and business leaders are on board for another try at making the Dunes National Lakeshore into a national park.