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The Nature Conservancy in Indiana Indiana Homepage Where We Work How We Work Ways of Giving Journey With Nature Events News Press Releases Volunteer Contact |
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Ivanhoe Dune & Swale Preserve
Why You Should Visit
Ivanhoe Dune & Swale Location Size Owned & Managed By How to Prepare for Your Visit Directions What The Nature Conservancy is Doing/has Done With the help of volunteers, interns, and partner organizations, plus financial assistance through various public grants, the Conservancy is transforming Ivanhoe into a rich patchwork of upland savanna, prairie, forest, and wetland by thinning out the overstory through prescribed burns and manual labor. In the summer of 2001, the first of 250 Karner blue butterflies were released at Ivanhoe as part of a multi-year effort to restore this federally endangered species to the preserve. The reintroduction projects are ongoing and will be so until viable populations are seen. The success of these projects have the Conservancy working with federal and state officials to expand its efforts to restore Karner blues to other preserves in northwestern Indiana which include areas guarded by the Southern Lake Michigan Rim Project Office.
Paul Labus © TNC
Ivanhoe is a remnant of a globally unique natural community known as "dune and swale." It was formed when ancient glacial Lake Chicago receded thousands of years ago. A series of linear sandy beach ridges alternate with long narrow wetlands in parallel bands to form this rare community. Like counting the rings on a tree, aerial photographs from the early 1930s clearly show this distinctive topography extending inland several miles from the shores of Lake Michigan. Rapid industrial and residential development of the lakeshore destroyed all but tiny fragments of this incomparable landscape.
Lake County
120 Acres
The Nature Conservancy
The preserve is open for visitation, and includes an interpretive trail. For more information please consult the Conservancy’s Preserves Visitation Guidelines.
From the I-80/94 and I-65 interchange, travel west on I-80/94 approximately 7 miles to the Cline Avenue North exit (S.R. 912. Travel north roughly 2 miles to U.S. 20 E (W. 5th Avenue). Continue traveling east on U.S. 20 E about one mile to Hamlin Street and turn left (north) to 4th Avenue. Turn left and park on either side of the road.
Located in a working class neighborhood of Gary, the east 40 acres of Ivanhoe had originally been plotted into individual lots for residential development. The Conservancy began acquiring these lots in the mid-1980's through tax auctions and donations. The west unit of Ivanhoe - 80 acres - was amassed in 1991.
