Cowles Bog

Dune Acres was a South Shore Line flag stop located at Mineral Springs Road serving Dune Acres in Porter County, Indiana. The station opened prior to 1910 and closed in 1994, as part of an NICTD service revision which also saw the closure of Ambridge, Kemil Road, Willard Avenue, LaLumiere, Rolling Prairie, and New Carlisle. The station did not close on July 5, 1994, like the other stations, instead closing after parking was expanded at the Dune Park station.

Dune Acres is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 182 at the 2010 census. Dune Acres is located in the duneland of the south shore of Lake Michigan. Many residents of Dune Acres and surrounding communities helped preserve parts of the Indiana Dunes.

The Calumet Trail is an east-west bicycle and multiuse recreational trail in the Calumet region of northwestern Indiana, United States. It runs roughly parallel to U.S. Route 12 and the right-of-way of the South Shore line, along the NIPSCO easement. The trail runs for about 9.1 miles (14.6 km) from Mineral Springs Road in Dune Acres, Indiana, near Cowles Bog, to a point by the county line of Porter County and LaPorte County, very close to the parking lot entrance of a local sand dune landmark, Mount Baldy. The surface is of crushed limestone and is frequently used by cyclists and joggers in the warmer months, and skiers in the winter.Deer and other wildlife are often seen along the trail, which loosely connects with other bicycle/multi-use trails in northwestern Indiana in a loose arc from near the Illinois state line to near the Michigan state line, bringing trail users in proximity to Indiana Dunes National Park and Indiana Dunes State Park. The Calumet Trail is managed by the Porter County Parks Department.The trail was constructed in 1976, and is the first dedicated bicycle trail in Indiana. At that time, the trail was paved with asphalt blacktop for its entire length. However, the wetlands the trail passes through deteriorated the pavement, and the trail was unusable by the late 1990s. In 2001, the trail was repaired, and the crumbling pavement was replaced with crushed limestone, and the iconic covered bridge over Brown Ditch was constructed. After years of being vandalized, the covered bridge was removed in September of 2012.

Good Fellow Club Youth Camp is a historic summer camp and a national historic district located at Porter, Porter County, Indiana. The district encompasses nine contributing buildings, seven contributing structures, and one contributing site built by U.S. Steel for its employees' children. The contributing resources include the camp site with roadways and foundations of removed buildings, administration building (lodge, 1941), gate house and flagstone wall (1946), caretaker's house and garage (1941), pool house (1946), steel footbridge, steel swimming pool (1946), riflery (c. 1951), and tennis courts (1946). The buildings reflect the Adirondack rustic and American Craftsman architectural styles. The camp remained in operation until 1976, and is now part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2013.

The Joseph Bailly Homestead, also known as Joseph Bailly Homestead and Cemetery, in Porter, Indiana, is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. The Bailly Homestead is preserved by the National Park Service in Indiana Dunes National Park in Porter, Indiana. The Homestead was the home of Joseph Aubert de Gaspé Bailly de Messein (1774-1835), one of the first permanent white settlers in Northwest Indiana. This homestead, begun in 1834, is one of the only surviving elements of the once-significant fur trade in the region. It received its landmark designation in 1962.Bailly brought his family to the southern shore of Lake Michigan in 1822, first living in a log house built soon afterward. The Homestead remained in the family until the death of his granddaughter, Frances Howe, in 1917. The Homestead is sometimes referred to as the "Bailly-Howe" Home. The National Park Service acquired the Homestead on November 26, 1971.

Porter is a town in Westchester Township, Porter County, in the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 4,858 at the 2010 census. Porter is in the Indiana Dunes ecosystem, which played a role in the creation of The Nature Conservancy, and inspired conservation efforts.Porter is noted for its proximity to Indiana Dunes State Park and for its railroad heritage. Porter was the southern terminus for the Chicago and West Michigan Railway.

Dune Acres Clubhouse is a historic clubhouse located at Dune Acres, Porter County, Indiana. It was built in 1925, and is a three-story, Bungalow / American Craftsman style building. It has a gable roof and is constructed of reinforced concrete and chinked horizontal logs on the two upper floors.: 5 It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2007.

Baillytown is a former community in northern Porter County, Indiana, near the present-day communities of Porter and Burns Harbor. Although the town platted as the Town of Bailly was never built, the Baillytown name was used for many years to refer to the area around the original Joseph Bailly trading post. The name continues today as the name of a subdivision, constructed in the 1990s, in the town of Porter.Baillytown began as a paper community, platted by Joseph Bailly in 1833 near his trading post on the Little Calumet River. Bailly had a group of French Canadians planning on settling in the dunes. When he became ill in 1835, he wrote to these families and recommended that they not journey to the shores of Lake Michigan. The development of a new settlement in the wilderness would be compounded by their lack of English and their lack of experience living among Indians. In the 1830s, the Baillytown name was commonly used for the settlement around the Bailly trading post, which saw frequent visits from Potawatomi trading parties. Baillytown was on a northern branch of the Sauk Trail, and was also accessible from Lake Michigan via Petit Fort. When stagecoach traffic began in 1833, Baillytown was the last stop before Chicago, a journey that could take between six hours and six days depending on conditions. Subsequently, the Long Pole Bridge, a terrifying thousand-foot wooden bridge, was constructed just west of Baillytown to allow travelers to cross the Little Calumet inland.

Indiana Dunes National Park is a United States national park located in northwestern Indiana managed by the National Park Service. It was authorized by Congress in 1966 as the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and was redesignated as the nation's 61st national park on February 15, 2019. The park runs for about 20 miles (32 km) along the southern shore of Lake Michigan and covers 15,349 acres (6,212 ha). Along the lakefront, the eastern area is roughly the lake shore south to U.S. 12 or U.S. 20 between Michigan City, Indiana, on the east and the Cleveland-Cliffs steel plant on the west. This area's conservation scheme is enhanced by the older Indiana Dunes State Park. To the west of the steel plant lies West Beach and a small extension south of the steel mill continues west along Salt Creek to Indiana 249. The western area is roughly the shoreline south to U.S. 12 between the Burns Ditch west to Broadway in downtown Gary, Indiana. In addition, there are several outlying areas, including Pinhook Bog, in LaPorte County to the east; the Heron Rookery in Porter County, the center of the park; and the Calumet Prairie State Nature Preserve and the Hobart Prairie Grove, both in Lake County, the western end of the park.

Indiana Dunes National Park is a National Park Service unit on the shore of Lake Michigan in Indiana, United States. A BioBlitz took place there on May 15 and 16, 2009. During that time, a list of organisms was compiled which included invertebrates.

Thirty-seven species of mammals have been identified at Indiana Dunes National Park. Four other species are thought to inhabit the park, but have not been documented: the northern long-eared myotis (Myotis septentrionalis), the Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis), the hoary bat (Lasiurus cinereus), and the southern bog lemming (Synaptomys cooperi) Common mammals seen by visitors and residents include the eastern cottontail, the eastern fox squirrel, the white-footed mouse, the white-tailed deer, and the meadow vole. Extirpated mammals include the common porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum), the gray wolf (Canis lupus), the red wolf (Canis rufus), the black bear (Ursus americanus), the fisher (Pekania pennanti), the cougar (Puma concolor), the Canada lynx (Lynx canadensis), the bobcat (Lynx rufus), the elk (Cervus canadensis), and the American bison (Bison bison). There are two threatened or endangered species in the dunes. The American badger (Taxidea taxus), on the Indiana threatened list is known to inhabit the area. The Indiana bat (Myotis indiana), on the federal endangered list is presumed to inhabit areas of the dunes. Recent records, documented photographically, indicate that North American river otter (Lontra canadensis) and bobcat (Lynx rufus) began returning to the area in 2011 and 2018, respectively.

Westchester Township is one of twelve townships in Porter County, Indiana. It is included in the Calumet, Northwest Indiana, and Great Lakes regions. It is located on the southern shore of Lake Michigan, about 50 miles (80 km) southeast of Chicago. It stretches from the famous Indiana Dunes on its northern border, south to the Valparaiso Moraine, a ridge of rolling hills left by the last glacier to pass through the area. As of the 2010 census, its population was 19,396.