How glass companies stole an entire 200-foot Indiana mountain one boxcar at a time in the 1890s

The Great Dune Mining Catastrophe

Michigan City’s waterfront once boasted a 200-foot sand mountain that drew 180,000 visitors a year.

The Hoosier Slide was Indiana’s most famous landmark in the 1890s, hosting presidential visits and weddings on its summit. Then glass companies discovered its iron-rich sand made perfect blue canning jars.

By 1920, they had hauled away the entire dune in railroad boxcars.

This industrial destruction sparked America’s first conservation movement when horrified botanists fought to save the remaining dunes.

The complete story of how one landmark vanished and launched environmental protection reveals itself at Indiana Dunes National Park today.

Tourists Flocked to Indiana’s Famous Sand Mountain

The Hoosier Slide drew crowds from everywhere in the 1890s.

This huge 200-foot sand dune near Michigan City got so popular that about 180,000 visitors came each year from Chicago and beyond. Folks could see the sandy hill from miles away.

President McKinley visited on October 17, 1899, where crowds greeted him with a 21-gun salute for the Spanish-American War’s end. Local shops ran races up the steep slopes with cash prizes.

Couples even got married at the top. The Indiana State Prison offered free marriage licenses, ministers, and trips for anyone wanting a dune-top wedding.

Natural Gas Changed Everything for Indiana’s Economy

Gas popped up by surprise in Indiana in 1876 when coal miners in Eaton heard odd noises and smelled something bad after digging 600 feet down.

The first real gas well came in 1886 when drilling hit 922 feet, making a flame so big people saw it from Muncie, ten miles away.

This find was part of the huge 5,120-square-mile Trenton gas field, America’s biggest in the 1890s. Companies rushed to use the cheap energy.

The “gas belt” brought 162 new factories to Indiana by 1890, creating over 10,000 jobs as towns fought for businesses by offering free gas and land.

Ball Brothers Saw Gold in Indiana’s Gas Fields

Five brothers running the Ball Brothers Glass Manufacturing Company moved their New York business in 1886 to make fruit jars in gas-rich Indiana.

Muncie leaders almost begged them to come, offering seven acres of land, a gas well, $5,000 cash, and railroad links.

The brothers started building in September 1887 and fired up their first glass making on March 1, 1888, making oil holders and lamp parts.

They liked it so much that by 1889, they moved their whole company headquarters and all making to Muncie. This move soon linked them to the blue sand that made their jars famous.

Blue Sand Made Perfect Glass That Customers Loved

Glass makers found something special in sand from the Hoosier Slide. The iron-rich grains made a light aqua-blue glass that looked beautiful and sold well.

Ball Brothers turned this into their trademark “Ball Blue” canning jars, which many folks thought kept fruit fresh longer. Other companies jumped on the blue sand train too.

Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company used it for mirrors, while Hemingray Glass Company created their “Hemingray Blue” insulators.

The unique color helped Ball Brothers become the world’s biggest fruit jar maker by 1900, all thanks to sand from a tourist spot.

Workers Started Hauling Away the Dune One Shovelful at a Time

Sand mining began around 1890 when the Monon Railroad built tracks along the east side of the dune.

At first, workers loaded sand the hard way, using wheelbarrows and shovels to fill train cars headed for glass factories in Muncie.

The Monon Railroad got lots of asks for the special Michigan City sand, which also worked great for helping trains grip slick tracks. William Manny grew up in Michigan City and worked for the railroad.

He saw money when he looked at the lakefront land and its mountain of valuable sand, setting up bigger mining plans.

A Chicago Professor Found a Whole New Science in the Dunes

University of Chicago plant expert Henry Cowles changed science forever with his 1899 paper about plants growing on Lake Michigan’s sand dunes.

His work became the first real study of plant ecology, earning him the title “father of ecology in North America.”

Cowles showed that the dunes held more than 1,100 native plant types, making them the fourth most varied ecosystem in what would later become the National Park system.

Scientists from around the world came to see the unique way plants grew on the shifting sands, bringing notice to the special place that was already being carted away.

Chicago Nature Lovers Formed America’s First Dune Protection Group

Henry Cowles teamed up with Thomas Allinson and Jens Jensen in 1908 to create the Prairie Club of Chicago.

This group became the first effort to save the Indiana Dunes from businesses that wanted to dig them up or build on them.

Club members went on hikes and camping trips in the dunes, spreading the word about why these sandy hills mattered. They pushed for the dunes to stay natural “for the enjoyment of the people.”

The club later grew into the National Dunes Park Association with a clear goal: “National Park for the Middle West. ” Their timing couldn’t have been more urgent.

Sand Companies Ramped Up to Industrial-Scale Mining

The Hoosier Slide Sand Company formed in 1906 under William Manny’s leadership, joining with local lawyer I.I. Spiro. Their work grew quickly, shipping out about 30 train cars of sand every day.

Hundreds of tons of the dune vanished daily as demand for the special blue sand grew. A local grocery store owner tracked the shrinking hill by cutting notches in his front door that lined up with the dune’s height.

The Michigan City Dispatch newspaper warned readers in 1894 that the beloved landmark would soon be “nothing more than a memory.” They got that right.

Park Supporters Fought Hard But Industry Won

The National Park Service held meetings in Chicago in 1916, where 400 people including Henry Cowles showed up to support saving what was left of the dunes. Not one person spoke against the idea.

Stephen Mather, the first head of the National Park Service, suggested a 12,000-acre Sand Dunes National Park.

Then World War I broke out, putting saving plans on hold while mining companies kept digging around the clock.

Scientists warned about the unique ecosystem being lost forever, and public anger grew as the famous dune shrank, but business needs and jobs won out over saving efforts.

The Mountain of Sand Vanished Without a Trace

By the early 1920s, the once-towering 200-foot Hoosier Slide had completely disappeared. The Hoosier Slide Sand Company and Pinkston Sand Company removed an incredible 13.5 million tons of sand over 30 years, all shipped away in railroad boxcars.

Ball Brothers stockpiled enough of the special blue sand to keep making their distinctive jars until 1937, a full 17 years after the dune itself was gone.

The flat, empty land where the famous attraction once stood got sold to Northern Indiana Public Service Company, which saw the perfect spot for a new power plant, not a natural wonder.

The Lost Dune Sparked a Movement That Saved What Remained

Government officials gathered in 1930 to lay the cornerstone for a $9 million NIPSCO power plant where tourists once climbed the famous sand hill. The complete destruction of the Hoosier Slide shocked many people into action.

Public pressure led to the creation of Indiana Dunes State Park in 1925, thanks largely to the Prairie Club’s efforts. More conservation laws passed in the 1970s and 1980s to protect the remaining dunes from industrial destruction.

The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore finally became reality in 1966, later upgraded to Indiana Dunes National Park in 2019. These protected areas preserve what’s left of the ecosystem that once included the vanished Hoosier Slide.

Visiting Indiana Dunes National Park

You can explore the Great Dune Mining Catastrophe story at Indiana Dunes National Park at 1215 IN-49 in Porter.

The Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center displays Ball Blue glass artifacts from the destroyed Hoosier Slide sand dunes. Entry costs $25 per vehicle or $15 for walk-ins.

The Cowles Bog Trail at 1450 North Mineral Springs Road honors botanist Henry Cowles who helped start America’s first dunes conservation movement after industry hauled away entire sand mountains by train.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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