(Porter County, IN) - The Indiana Dunes turned 60 on Thursday.

Talks about preserving the Dunes began in 1916, and the area opened to the public ten years later. On November 5, 1966 President Lyndon Johnson signed a bill making Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. In 2019 President Trump made it Indiana's first Natonal Park.

On Thursday evening, Dunes National Park Acting Superintendent Leo Lestino gave a presentation to members of Save the Dunes, a local conservation group. He reminded everyone that the history of the scenic area goes way beyond 60 years ago.

“It is the federal park that turns 60,” Lestino said, “but this land has been stewarded for thousands of years. The human history here reaches back thousands of years. They’ve got archeological evidence that documents human activity here in Indiana Dunes for roughly 10,500 years. The Miami and Potawatomi histories are part of this landscape.”

Save the Dunes has been working to preserve unique area since 1952. On Saturday volunteers kept the efforts going by planting grasses on top of Mt. Baldy to stabilize its summit.