Changing landscapes of Northwest Indiana : draining Beaver Lake and the Kankakee Marsh.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dobberstein, Michael, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Marshes--Indiana, Northwest--History.

Marshes.

Drainage--Environmental aspects--Indiana, Northwest--History.

Drainage.

Reclamation of land.

Indiana, Northwest--Ecology.

Indiana, Northwest.

Kankakee River (Ind. and Ill.).

Beaver Lake (Ind.).

Physical Description:

[ix], 229 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

West Lafayette, Ind. : Purdue University Press, 2025.

Summary:

"Before they were destroyed, Beaver Lake was the largest lake in Indiana, and the Kankakee Marsh was nearly half a million acres of wetland. This was one of the major inland marshes in the country before landowners drained it for farmland. Changing Landscapes of Northwest Indiana examines the massive ecological devastation caused by the destruction of Beaver Lake, the channelization of the Kankakee River, and the draining of the Kankakee Marsh. The book traces early efforts to drain the marsh, leading to the successful completion of the project in the twentieth century, and covers the problems that still exist today. The consequences were immense and extended beyond the struggle by conservationists to restore or preserve portions of the marsh. The loss of the marsh fostered a century of flooding in the Kankakee Valley and caused decades of conflict with Illinois, which shares the Kankakee River with Indiana. To this day there are ongoing attempts to manage flooding on the river, and residents of Illinois continue to claim that channelization caused severe environmental problems in their state. Serious and lasting environmental problems have proved intractable. The citizens of Indiana--and their government--made profound and irreversible choices about managing a vast wetland and a river within the state's borders. The story of the conversion of the Kankakee Marsh to farmland is an object lesson in the manifold problems that arise from the imperatives of unrestrained environmental exploitation." -Back cover.

Contents:

Introduction: an essay on ownership, and the question of value

Part 1: Reshaping the land

The Kankakee Marsh, the River, and Beaver Lake

Selling Beaver Lake, 1853-1891

The "gigantic swindle" of 1869-1872

Starting a current, 1889-1893

The end of the Marsh, 1897-1923

Part 2: Land remade: the consequences

Conservationists raise their voices, 1925-1934

Lessons in hydrology, 1927-1977

Managing the "monumental problems" of a broken river, 1977-1978

Environmentalism comes for the Kankakee, 1979-1983

Wide levees and the struggle for restoration, 1983-2002

The Kankakee Basin in the 21st Century

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index (pages 217-229).

ISBN:

162671147X

9781626711471

1626711461

9781626711464

OCLC:

1513353701