Porter, Indiana.

The Indiana Dunes National Park is a relatively young national park, designated in 2019. It stretches for 15 miles (24 km) along the southern coast of Lake Michigan, encompassing over 15,000 acres (6200 ha) of diverse landscapes. We are trying to visit any nearby national parks as we travel. When we arrived at Indiana Dunes in September 2022, we didn’t know anything about the park and its features. From its name, we expected dunes along the beach, and for that, we weren’t disappointed. We learned that there are other environments to enjoy in the park as well.

Along the main road, there are parking areas where people can access the dunes and the lake shore. The park consists of miles of sandy beaches along Lake Michigan. Here you can swim, sunbathe, boat, or fish. Some of the dunes rise to 200 feet (61 m) or more. Other ecosystems in the park include wetlands and prairies.

With over 50 miles (80 km) of trails, there’s a hike for everyone in the park, from short and easy nature walks to challenging climbs up the sand dunes. Hikers can trek through 15 distinct trail systems. The park is home to over 350 species of birds, making it a great destination for birdwatchers.

Even on a cool September day, swimmers enjoyed the waters of Lake Michigan. Be aware of any alerts for swimmers and check the water conditions and advisories before entering the lake, as rip currents can be a danger. Boating of all types is popular, and the lake’s waves can get quite large, making it a popular spot for surfers and windsurfers, especially on the western side of the lake, in the warm summer months.

Sometimes we have great timing, and sometimes we don’t. We were surprised by the amount of traffic, especially as we neared “The Century of Progress” homes. Five historic houses originally built for the 1933 Chicago World’s Fair were moved by barge to Beverly Shores, Indiana, in 1935, in an attempt to create a new lakeside resort community.

Today, the Century of Progress Homes are part of the Indiana Dunes National Park and are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. You can see them from Lake Front Drive, but tours are only available by reservation one day each September. As you might guess, of all the days in a year, we picked the one day that tours of the houses were featured.

The Florida Tropical House was inspired by the sunny climate of Southern Florida. The architect aimed to create a seamless blend of indoor and outdoor living. Though the original plans called for poured concrete walls, a more budget-friendly approach was taken. The house was framed with wood and finished with a lightweight concrete stucco, maintaining its unique aesthetic. The bright pink exterior became a well-known landmark for sailors navigating Lake Michigan.

The Armco-Ferro House isn’t a typical “stick-built” dwelling. It’s the sole example from the World’s Fair that embodied the Fair Committee’s conception: a mass-produced, affordable home for the average American family. This seemingly frameless marvel achieved this vision with a revolutionary construction system using pre-fabricated, bolted-together corrugated steel panels.

The Wieboldt-Rostone House was built with a steel frame, the house’s most striking feature is its cladding, a product called Rostone. This experimental material, composed of shale, limestone, and alkali, promised to revolutionize residential construction. Its creators touted its versatility, boasting the ability to produce Rostone in various colors and precise shapes, from slabs to panels.

Finally, a house for this aviator. The House of Tomorrow’s first floor was a glimpse into a future fueled by optimism. Imagine a home with a built-in garage, revolutionary in the 1930s. This wasn’t just any garage; it was also an airplane hangar. After all, World’s Fair visionaries assumed every family in the future would own a personal aircraft! Today, the vision has come to fruition in many “runway communities” where, like golfing communities, houses are built around the feature, in those cases a private runway where home owners can taxi their aircraft from their personal hangar and take off.

Though there is no runway available here for the “owners” of the House of Tomorrow, the unique design of the living areas provide plenty of modern features, or at least they will again when the home’s reconstruction is complete.

All of these interesting houses and more are now owned by a non-profit organization, Indiana Landmarks. Four of the five houses looked wildly modern in 1933, so ahead of their time that they remain modern looking today. The Cypress House, honoring its material, looks like a rustic log cabin, albeit with modern amenities. To save the structures, Indiana Landmarks leased them from the National Park Service, then subleased four to people who have restored them in exchange for long-term leases.

The Indiana Dunes is made up of two different parks—the Indiana Dunes National Park and the Indiana Dunes State Park. The Indiana Dunes State Park spreads over 2,000 acres with a swimming beach, nature center, and over 16 miles of hiking trails. The Indiana Dunes National Park is located on both the east and west sides of the state park. It’s a preserve stretching 15 miles along the coast of Lake Michigan. The park has hiking trails, beaches, and some pretty amazing historical sites. Each park requires a different entry fee or pass to visit. You can find a detailed description of the separate parks and fee structures in a post on the State Park website here.

I scheduled this post for publication in July for those who might want to purchase tour tickets for the Century of Progress Home Tour. The annual tour is held on the last weekend of September and is sponsored by the non-profit organization Indiana Landmarks. Tickets go on sale early in August and usually sell out within one hour. Contact them or check their website here if you want to get tickets for the home tour.

Be sure to check the park websites I linked above for more information about park access and visitor center hours. If you’ve no interest in visiting the Century of Progress homes, I’d recommend avoiding the last weekend in September. I’ve posted 2K HD versions of these images on my Flickr site here for those who wish to pixel-peep.

John Steiner