The landscape of the Calumet, an area that sits astride the Indiana–Illinois state line at the southern end of Lake Michigan, results from the effects of glaciers that left the area toward the end of the ice age—about 14,000 years ago. In the years since, many natural forces, including wind, running water, and the waves of Lake Michigan, have continued to shape the land. The lake's modern and ancient shorelines have served as Indian trails, stagecoach routes, highways, and sites that have evolved into many of the cities, towns, and villages of the Calumet area. People have also left their mark on the landscape: Indians built mounds; farmers filled in wetlands; governments commissioned ditches and canals to drain marshes and change the direction of rivers; sand was hauled from where it was plentiful to where it was needed for urban and industrial growth. These thousands of years of weather and movements of peoples have given the Calumet region its distinct climate and appeal.
Ken Schoon, a Northwest Indiana native and professor of science education, has a bachelor's degree in geology, a master's in secondary education, and a Ph.D. in curriculum and instruction. In 1990, after 22 years as a middle and high school teacher, he joined the faculty at Indiana University Northwest. Dr. Schoon's research interests center around science misconceptions and local studies. He is a board member and past president of the Dunes Learning Center and a member of the IU Northwest Science Olympiad committee.
His book, Calumet Beginnings, now in its fifth printing, came out in October, 2003. It is a heavily illustrated, interdisciplinary geology and early history of the Calumet Region of northwest Indiana and south of Chicago areas.
His latest book, City Trees: An ID Guide to Urban and Suburban Species, is due to hit bookstores by September, 2011.
In the works is a coffee-table book about the Indiana Dunes.
