Between them, Indiana Dunes State Park and Indiana Dunes National Park bring in as many annual visitors — 5 million — as Yellowstone National Park. Now an infusion of $16 million from the Great America Outdoors Act will allow for investment in historical structures in the national park.
It’s part of a broader effort to make the parks more than a beach destination, and the historical gems within them self-sustaining so they never again slip into deferred maintenance mode. “That’s the business we’re in — to adaptively reuse these historic structures,” said Indiana Dunes National Park Superintendent Paul Labovitz.
Construction is slated to begin in 2024 and the money will be divided between three historic buildings: The House of Tomorrow, which was the fifth of the Century of Progress Homes brought to Beverly Shores after the 1933 World’s Fair; Bailly Homestead, a three-story home built by pioneers along the Little Calumet River in 1835; and Good Fellow Lodge built by U.S. Steel Company to provide a summer camp experience for its employees’ children just down the road from Bailly Homestead, also on the banks of the Little Calumet River.
The House of Tomorrow will get a new roof and have its exterior glass shell restored. “That’s going to make it attainable for someone to finally finish the job,” said Labovitz of the long-term lease arrangement the National Park Service will then enter into with a private tenant capable of completing the renovations.
Bailly Homestead, which is a National Historic Landmark, will receive structural repairs, siding, roofing, windows, and new utilities, as will the little brick house next door. There are plans for Bailly possibly to reemerge as an event venue of some kind.
Emergency shoring has already been done at Bailly after a 2018 structural assessment determined there were deficiencies with the house’s original framing. “We didn’t know how much time it would be before we would get restoration funding,” said Todd Ravesloot, chief of facilities for Indiana Dunes National Park.
The core of the house is a two-story log structure, which was added on to to achieve its current appearance in the late 1800s/early 1900s. “The reality is it was built with old growth wood that is 20 times stronger than what you can get today,” Ravesloot said.
The Bailly family moved out of the house by 1918 when it was sold to an order of nuns and used as a retreat center. The emergency shoring was paid for out of fee revenue. Indiana Dunes National Park has brought in $1.5 million in admission receipts since the beginning of April, when the park began charging an entrance fee.
This figure is expected to rise considerably as visitors get used to the new admission fees which have been on an honor system thus far. “We think the compliance is fairly low,” said Labovitz. “This year we hope you comply, and next year there might be an additional fee if you don’t.”
The 11,000-square-foot Good Fellow Lodge will receive a full rehabilitation complete with a new interior and exterior, as well as plumbing, heating, and air conditioning systems, with the intent of turning it into a meeting center for the Dunes Learning Center. Good Fellow Youth Camp operated from 1941 to 1976 when it was shuttered and bought by the National Park Service.
It’s part of the National Register District and “until recently was one of the most robust raccoon habitats in Northwest Indiana,” according to Labovitz. Apparently the raccoons know as well as the visitors what a draw the place is.
“We’re less than 1% the size of Yellowstone National Park and we get the same number of visitors,” Labovitz said of the state and national parks’ combined 15,000 acres, compared with Yellowstone’s two million acres.
Plans abound to make the experience easier, more diverse, and more environmentally friendly. Maintenance Action Teams made up of master craftsmen will soon be housed in the national park this fall and deployed to some of the smaller parks in the area to make repairs and upgrades in places that can’t normally support staff.
While they received $14 million for historical renovations, Indiana Dunes National Park requested $30 million. The Maintenance Action Teams are a creative workaround to the shortfall. “We would argue there’s $14 million-plus worth of projects that weren’t funded and we will find resources to fund the materials,” Labovitz said.
And, as the steward of anything old and historic knows, the to-do list is never-ending. “If you worry about it — ‘Oh, I’ll never get caught up!’ — you’ll lose your mind,” Labovitz said.
Shelley Jones is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
