The Calumet Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of

Lake Michigan Lake Michigan ( ) is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. It is the second-largest of the Great Lakes by volume () and depth () after Lake Superior and the third-largest by surface area (), after Lake Superior and Lake Huron. To the ...

located in the Lake Michigan Basin. It can be clearly seen as a sand ridge along Ridge Road south of Chicago. Closer to the lake from the Calumet Shoreline, there are the Tolleston shorelines and farther from the lake are the

Glenwood Shoreline The Glenwood Shoreline is an ancient shoreline of the precursor to Lake Michigan, Lake Chicago. It is named after the town of Glenwood, Illinois. The shoreline was formed when the lake was higher during the last ice age, while ice blocked the Stra ...

, the

Tinley Moraine The Tinley Moraine is a moraine around the Lake Michigan basin in North America. It was formed during the Wisconsin Glaciation and is younger than the higher and wider terminal moraine called the Valparaiso Moraine, which is located farther from t ...

, and the

Valparaiso Moraine The Valparaiso Moraine is a recessional moraine (a landform left by receding glaciers) that forms an immense U around the southern Lake Michigan basin in North America. It is a band of hilly terrain composed of glacial till and sand. The Valpar ...

. The shoreline is named after the

Calumet Region The Calumet Region is the geographic area drained by the Grand Calumet River and the Little Calumet River of northeastern Illinois and northwestern Indiana in the United States. It is part of the Great Lakes Basin, which eventually reaches th ...

of Northern Indiana.

Development

The Michigan Lobe of the continental glacier had been stagnant for years, forming the

. Once again, it began a general retreat northwards. The melt waters which formed Glacial Lake Chicago, had more space in which to reside. Then it began to drop. It appears that the outlet to the

Illinois River The Illinois River () is a principal tributary of the Mississippi River at approximately in length. Located in the U.S. state of Illinois, the river has a drainage basin of . The Illinois River begins with the confluence of the Des Plaines ...

, was cutting downward, keeping pace with the lowering lake. At around , it stopped cutting downward and the lake stabilized.''The Indiana Dunes - Legacy of Sand''; Special Report 8; State of Indiana Department of Natural Resources; Geological Survey, John R. Hill, 1974

Features

The Calumet beach opens into the Chicago outlet, and is or below the Glenwood beach. It stands about above

at the southern end.The Pleistocene of Indiana and Michigan, History of the Great Lakes; Monographs of the United States Geological Survey, Vol. LIII; Frank Leverett and Frank B. Taylor; Washington, D.C,; Government Printing Office; 1915; Chapter XIV, Glacial Lake Chicago, F. Leverett Along much of the east and west shores the beach has been eroded by the lake. Along these shores, it is more than from the lake. It takes its name from the

Calumet River The Calumet River is a system of industrialized rivers and canals in the region between the south side of Chicago, Illinois, and the city of Gary, Indiana. Historically, the Little Calumet River and the Grand Calumet River were one, the former ...

in northwestern

Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...

where it is well preserved. On the south shore it is from to from the lakeshore, continuing as far north on the west shore to near Winnetka.

Development

Features

References

See also