When 14-year-old Mitchel Smith went camping at the Indiana Dunes State Park each year, he enjoyed the sounds, smells, and sights of nature and knew he wanted to help others to come to share in the respite of the landscape.
It was only natural that the freshman at Chesterton High School chose the dunes as the site for his Eagle Scout project, which he achieved on March 17 as a Scout with Troop 929, raising $3,935 to buy materials for 10 benches he built along the park’s boardwalk.
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Working with Brad Bumgardner, interpretive naturalist for the Indiana Dunes State Park, Smith also organized two work days for him and members of his troop to clean up the interpretive area and replace nautical rope in this area.
“There was a problem with park visitors breaking fences and eroding the sand down onto the boardwalk so we moved a lot of sand away from the boardwalk and repaired fencing on the dune,” Smith said. “The fencing will prohibit visitors from coming down the back side of Devil’s Slide and help to save the dune.”
“It was a lot of manual labor,” he said.
Smith said erosion is a problem at the state park and already his project has been vandalized after just a few months.
“There’s a problem with people messing with the fences we put in,” Smith said. “They are taking pliers and cutting the wire. We’ve replaced them and already they’ve been cut and need to be replaced again. It’s a shortcut and they don’t want to walk around, so I think it comes down to laziness, but to me it’s harder to carry pliers around to cut fences.”
The efforts to prevent man-made erosion and vandalism will continue as the fences will be put back up again, and the benches are in place to encourage relaxation and the opportunity to soak in the beauty of the dunes.
“I’ve known a couple of people who have seen the benches and have been able to enjoy them, and the staff at the Indiana Dunes State Park has thanked me for my work,” Smith said.