Hikes explore historic sites at Indiana Dunes

The historic Bailly Homestead on the Bailly Chellberg Trail. NPS photo.

Hikers can explore several historic sites – from pioneer homesteads to homes of the future – at Indiana Dunes National Park.

Humans have lived in the Indiana Dunes area since about 13,000 B.C. when the last ice age’s glaciers retreated from the area. Scattered artifacts have been found on the higher and older dune ridges. More recently, Native American villages existed in the area, but most signs of them disappeared as Euro-American settlers arrived in the area during the 1800s. Because of that, the park’s historic sites focus on sites from the 19th and 20th centuries.

Among the historic sites that can be hiked in the park are:
• Bailly Cemetery – Hikers can visit a family and community cemetery dating to 1827 on this 1.9-mile round trip trail. The cemetery sits about a mile north of the Bailly Homestead on the edge of a sand ridge. Pioneer fur trader Joseph Bailly selected the sand hill to bury his son and erected a thirty-foot wooden cross near the grave. Soon, other members of the Swedish community buried their deceased there. Park at the Chellberg Farm off of Mineral Springs Road south of U.S. Hwy. 12 and head north on the trail for a 1-mile round trip.
• Bailly Homestead – After running his fur-trading post on the Little Calumet River, Joseph Bailly established this farm in the early 1830s when the U.S. government opened northern Indiana to settlement. Among the buildings remaining on the homestead is the Bailly House (construction began in 1834), the chapel that was the summer kitchen, a log house that was the Bailly's dairy house and tool shed built in the mid-1870s, and a brick house from 1874. Park in the lot off of Howe Road south of Oak Hill Road and head south on the trail for a 0.7-mile round trip.
• Chellberg Farms – Day hikers can visit a historic Midwest homestead from the 1800s here. During the mid-1800s until the Great Depression, this area of Indiana – known as Baillytown –attracted a number of Swedish immigrants, who formed a close-knit community. Among them was the Kjellberg family, who emigrated to the United States in 1863. Several historic buildings can be explored on the homestead, including a farmhouse, barn and granary. Park in the Chellberg Farms lot off of North Mineral Springs Road south of U.S. Hwy. 12.
• 1933 Century of Progress World's Fair homes of the future – You can hike back to the future in a ranger-led tour of five historic homes erected during the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair to show what homes of the future would look like. Throughout a single day each October, two-hour walking tours are given of the Cypress Log Cabin, the House of Tomorrow, Florida Tropical, Armco Ferro, and the Wieboldt-Rostone houses. While some of the predictions, such as central air conditioning and dishwashers, came true, others – like the house with an airplane hangar on the first floor (after all, everyone in the future would have an airplane) – proved less than prophetic. In 1935, a developer brought the houses to the dunes hoping to attract home buyers to his resort community of Beverly Shores. Each of the homes are on the National Register of Historic Places.
• Good Fellow Youth Camp – U.S. Steel operated a summer camp for its employees’ children for more than three decades in the mid-20th century. Every week for two months, between 60-100 kids aged 8-15 enjoyed outdoors activities at the camp in a forest near Lake Michigan. No formal trail runs through the grounds, but you still can follow road sides and walk around the camp’s nine buildings and a swimming pool that remain for a 0.5-mile trek. Park at the Dunes Learning Center off of County Road 150 West/Howe Road south of County Road 1350 North/West Oak Hill road.

Trail crosses historic Wisconsin battle site

In 1832, a major battle in the American Indian Wars was fought near
this wayside marker and trail.

Wisconsin Heights Trail map.
Click map for larger version.

Day hikers can walk the Midwest’s only intact battleground from the American Indian Wars via a trail in the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway.

The 1.3-mile Wisconsin Heights Trail sits in the riverway’s Black Hawk Unit. Four stacked loops crisscross the battlegrounds at Black Ridge. The route described here uses legs of each stacked loop to circle the site.

From Sauk City, take U.S. Hwy. 12 southeast. Turn left/southwest onto Wis. Hwy. 78. After crossing County Road Y, miles, take the next right/southeast into horseshoe drive where you can park.

A state historical marker next to the trailhead commemorates the Black Hawk War battle. Going northeast onto the trail takes you along the battleground’s northwest edge. A few feet from the parking lot is another historical marker, erected in 1923, to commemorate the site.

In 1804, a treaty required the Sauk and Fox Indians to abandon their homeland in Indiana and Illinois and relocate west of the Mississippi River. Some tribal leaders, among them Chief Black Hawk, disputed the treaty’s legitimacy. Beginning in 1830, he led warriors and his followers into Illinois to reclaim their land.

Militia mobilized
At 0.2 miles, the trail reaches the junction with a second stacked loop in the battleground’s northeast corner. Go on it by heading left/northeast.

Militia in Michigan Territory (which included Wisconsin) and Illinois were mobilized in 1832 to remove Black Hawk’s band. A number of skirmishes followed, and the militia with its Ho Chunk allies chased the band toward the Wisconsin River.

With the militia in close pursuit, Black Hawk set up line at the northern end of this ridge to give about 700 children, women and elderly from the two tribes time to escape to safety by crossing the nearby Wisconsin River.

The trail next returns to the first stacked loop, though a little farther along it then when you had departed earlier, at 0.7 miles. Turn left/southwest.

At 0.8 miles, the trail reaches the third stacked loop. Go left/southwest onto it.

Attack!
The task facing Black Hawk’s warriors was daunting. He had a mere 50-80 warriors while the militia numbered between 600-750 soldiers.

At 0.9 miles, the trail comes to the fourth stacked loop. Head right/southeast. Another junction appears within a few feet. continue straight-right/southeast.

This puts you on a spur trail that heads to heads along the top of the north ridge. You’re at just under 820 feet elevation.

On July 21, 1832, the warriors established themselves on the ridge’s high ground. As the militia moved to take the ridge, the warriors approached them. When just 30 yards from one another, the militia opened fire. Black Hawk told his warriors to "stand their ground and never yield it to the enemy." His men returned fire.

The trail stops at 1 mile. There are five Native American burial mounds here, though they are unrelated to the battle. After taking in the sights, turn back.

River escape
A half-hour later, the militia charged with bayonets. Black Hawk’s men fired back as withdrawing. Mounted militia, however, had cut off their escape route. The few remaining warriors, including Black Hawk, scattered into the woods.

Still, that was enough time for the civilians in Black Hawk’s band to make it across the Wisconsin River in rafts.

At the next two junctions, continue straight/northwest. You’re now on the leg shared by the third and fourth stacked loops.

Black Hawk lost an estimated 40 warriors in the battle while the militia saw one dead and seven wounded. Though a devastating blow to Black Hawk, his leadership and the warrior’s sacrifice have long been hailed, as the band certainly would have been massacred when the militia caught up with it. Indeed, a mere week later at the Battle of Bad Axe, the militia did just that as it caught up with Black Hawk’s band as it tried to cross the Mississippi River.

At 1.2 miles, the third and fourth stacked loops separate. Go left/northwest. This heads back to the parking lot.

9 Great Day Hikes to Historical Spots

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

Best trails to see Dry Tortugas’ wonders
Among the best ways to see Dry Tortugas National Park’s top sights is via a day hike. Just three short walks allow you to enjoy each of the park’s highlights – a historic fort, a tropical key, and a Gulf of Mexico beach.

19th Century Mining Town
Crossing a thick rolling woodland, the Colorado River Trail offers nice views of Colorado River, arguably the Southwest’s most important waterway. The trail to the ruins of an 19th century mining town, Lulu City, in a 6.2-miles round trip with 320-foot elevation gain.

Great Smoky Mountain National Park trails
A number of great day hikes allow visitors to explore the Great Smoky Mountain National Park’s rich history. Pioneer cabins and mills await on several short day hikes.

Mount Rushmore National Monument
Among the iconic sights of South Dakota’s Black Hills region is Mount Rushmore National Monument. The gigantic carving of the heads of four presidents – George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln – took fourteen years and 400 workers to complete. Nearly 3 million people annually visit the monument.

Pinery Trail
Guadalupe National Park
Along the Texas-New Mexico border, families can step back into the Old West and experience the remoteness of what once was a welcome sign to travelers: a Butterfield Stage station in the Guadalupe Mountains. The 0.75-mile round trip Pinery Trail marks a great day hike for families at Guadalupe National Park. The trail leads to the ruins of the Pinery Station, a once favored stop on the original 2,800-mile Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

Learn more about national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks series.

Trails explore Voyageurs NP’s history

Ethno-botanical Garden Trail

The Ojibwe had been long settled in the area that is now Voyageurs National Park when Euro-Americans arrived there. In fact, the names of many of the park’s lakes – Namakan, Kabetogama and Natasha, among them – come from the Ojibwe language. The Ojibwe mostly lived on the lakes' shores, spearfishing and harvesting wild rice, as well as trading by canoeing across the region. Park visitors can learn about the plants the Ojibwe relied on via the Ethno-botanical Garden Trail.

French-Canadian canoeman, later known as the voyageurs, soon realized the dozens of interconnected lakes made it an ideal route of travel, as they could traverse 3000 miles of waterways between Lake Athabasca in northwest Canada to Montreal.

Many voyagers paddled their 26-foot-long canoes for up to 16 hours a day as they crossed these waterways; the long days were necessary to avoid winter, as a canoe trip from Grand Portage, Minn., to the subarctic Canadian interior could take between four to five months. When they needed to walk between lakes or bypass a particularly rough stretch of water, they'd portage, or hike to the next shoreline, carrying their canoe and usually a 90-pound pack of furs. They whiled away the time in their canoes by singing, which set a rhythm to paddle by; usually their songs were about cavaliers, fair ladies, gallant captains, springtime, rosebuds and nightingales. You can get an idea of what portaging was like on the Gold Portage Trail.

Many of the voyageurs were colorful characters, and not just in their behavior. They often wore a bright blue capote with red cap and sash as well as leggings and deerskin moccasins. Some who became Nor'westers – eight-man crews who rowed canoes that could carry up to 3000-pounds and often stayed the winter – earned the privilege of wearing a plume.

In addition to trade, a search for a water route between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans sent a number of explorers in the area. Among them was Pierre Gauliter de Varennes who in 1731 arrived in what is now Grand Portage. Two years later, they established Fort St. Pierre on Rainy Lake.

Ojibwe often supplied fur posts and canoe brigades with everything from food and birchbark canoes to “soft gold” – pelts of beaver and other animals that were popular in Europe.

In 1787, the international boundary between the United States and Canada (which at time was part of Great Britain) was established here between Lake Superior and Lake of the Woods. Fifty-six miles of that boundary sits in the national park.

Euro-American settlers began to arrive in large numbers during the 1800s. In 1865, gold allegedly was found on Vermilion Lake just south of the park, and then in 1890s gold was discovered in quartz veins on Little American Island. On the island, Rainy Lake City sprung up, boasting a population of more than 200, but the boomtown soon went bust and became a ghost town by 1901. A giant metal winch left by miners still remains among the ruins. Those ruins can be seen today on the Little American Island Trail.

Later, during the early 1900s, loggers came to the area. More than 40 logging camps operated in what is now the park between 1907 and 1922, so there are few big, old growth trees here.

Tourism and recreation began when U.S. Hwy. 53 opened in 1922 and has been the economic mainstay of the region for well over a half-century. One of the popular tourism sights of the mid 20th century that has enjoyed renewed popularity is the Ellsworth Rock Garden Tour. Voyageurs became a national park in 1975 though the idea had been around since 1891.

Learn more about the park’s day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at Voyageurs National Park guidebook.

Explore Split Rock’s history via day hikes

Aerial view of Split Rock Lighthouse, courtesy of Wikipedia.

Minnesota’s Split Rock Lighthouse State Park enjoys a rich history that ranges from shipping and mining to Native Americans and modern tourism. Several of the park’s day hiking trails explore this past.

Ojibwa Indians dominated the entire Minnesota North shore beginning in the 1700s. By the mid-1800s, the first white settlers in what is now the state park established a fishing village at Little Two Harbors. Cement foundations of the houses and fish processing buildings are all that remain. The Little Two Harbors Trail heads from the lighthouse to the village ruins.

From 1899-1906, a logging camp was set up at the mouth of the Split Rock River, down shore from Little Two Harbors. A rail line heading into the highlands also was constructed. It can be hiked via the Merrill Logging Trail. The logging camp ruins can be seen on the Corundum Mine Trail.

In 1901, the North Shore Abrasives Company set up shop at Corundum Point after a prospector misidentified the anorthosite there as corundum, which is used as an industrial abrasive. When the company realized it had the wrong rock, operations were abandoned. Cement footings of the company’s building and other relics from the mining operation still can be found at the park, also visible from the Corundum Mine Trail.

A horrible gale in November 1905 damaged 29 of U.S. Steel’s bulk ore carriers on Lake Superior. Two of them were wrecked on the rocky shoreline that now is the state park. The result was construction of Split Rock Lighthouse, which is the park’s main attraction. It became operational in 1910.

After Hwy. 61 was constructed in 1924, the lighthouse became an unintentional tourist attraction. Thousands of people began parking on the road and walking through the woods to the scenic point where the lighthouse stood.

A half century later, however, technology had made the old lighthouses obsolete. Many lighthouses across the country subsequently were automated while others closed. In 1969, Split Rock’s lighthouse was shut down.

Two years later, the state of Minnesota purchased the 25-acre lighthouse site. It was restored to its early 1920s appearance. Today, the lighthouse sits amid Minnesota’s fifth most-visited state park. The lighthouse and its grounds can be toured on the Split Rock Light Station Trail.

Learn about nearby hiking trails in Day Hiking Trails of Split Rock Lighthouse State Park.

Trail heads to Butterfield station ruins

Summer wildflowers in bloom at the Pinery Station ruins.
Photo courtesy Guadalupe NPS.

Map of Pinery Trail, courtesy Guadalupe NPS.

Short hike through desert
offers glimpse into history

Along the Texas-New Mexico border, families can step back into the Old West and experience the remoteness of what once was a welcome sign to travelers: a Butterfield Stage station in the Guadalupe Mountains.

The 0.75-mile round trip Pinery Trail marks a great day hike for families at Guadalupe National Park. The trail leads to the ruins of the Pinery Station, a once favored stop on the original 2,800-mile Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

The best time to visit the national park is autumn. High winds are common during spring, and summer temperatures typically are above 90 degrees with thunderstorms and lightning common.

To reach the park, take U.S. 180/62 either north from El Paso or south from Carlsbad Caverns. Either way you approach the park, you’ll get a feel for what traveling across the stark and forbidding Chihuahua Desert was like in olden days. The park is an hour from Carlsbad, N.M., and two hours from El Paso, Texas. Still, that’s fairly fast. During the Butterfield Overland days, Carlsbad to Guadalupe was a 12-hour trip and El Paso to Guadalupe took 23 hours.

Watch for the signs to the Pine Springs Visitor Center, turning west/northwest from the main highway. Park in the visitor center lot. The trail leaves from the lot’s north side and passes the visitor center's east side.

Mountains and flowering cholla
Directly ahead in the distance is the southern end of the Frijole Range. Hunter Peak, at 8368 feet, is the highest mountain in the range and dominates the vista. Guadalupe Mountain, at 8749 feet, is the highest point in Texas and rises to the west.

The fairly level, paved trail soon curves east with a dry wash to the left/north. Surrounding the trail are typically browned desert grasses and creosote; if visiting during April through June, you’ll spot cholla in bloom.

As the trail approaches the main highway, it splits. Going left/north takes you to the ruins of the old Pinery Station, among the route’s few remaining, though all that’s left here are interlaced slabs of limestone in a U-shape (Please keep children from climbing the walls, as they are fragile.).

Though the Butterfield route ran for only four years – from 1857 until the start of the Civil War – it is famous as the first transcontinental postal service. It connected Memphis and St. Louis to San Francisco, ferrying mail, freight and passengers east to west in 24 days in an around-the-clock journey. At that time, mail between the two ends of the continent had to be shipped by boat to an overland route in Panama and then by water up the Pacific coast. The transcontinental railroad wouldn’t exist until 1869.

Stone markers
After the flat, treeless and increasingly dry plains of Oklahoma and Texas, the Pinery was a welcome sight for travelers where water, food and rest awaited. The station was named for pine trees growing nearby thanks to several springs in the area. The temperature also was a little cooler; at 5,700 feet in altitude, it was the Butterfield route’s highest station.

The station remained open for only 11 months, though. Authorities moved the Butterfield route farther south to the Davis Mountains, as Mescalero Apaches posed a threat to stagecoaches in the Guadalupes.

Returning to the trail junction, continue straight/south toward the highway. At trail’s end are two stone markers. One honors the Pinery Station and was erected by Texas in 1936. The other was placed in 1958 by American Airlines for the 100-year anniversary of the Butterfield route.

Head on back the way you came and stop in the visitor center for exhibits about the Guadalupe Mountains. If staying at the park’s campground, Guadalupe offers the National Junior Paleontology Program for kids. Also, leashed dogs are allowed on the trail.

Learn about other great national park day hiking trails in my Best Sights to See at America’s National Parks guidebook.