Paddle into the Pleistocene at Chain O' Lakes State Park

Close to Fort Wayne, you'll find some of the best glacial 'kettle' lakes in the Midwest

By John Roche, Tony Fleming and John Hill

Photos courtesy of the Indiana Geological Survey

Finster Lake (above) is one of the "kettle" lakes, formed from melting blocks of glacial ice, for which Chain O' Lakes State Park is named. The last glacier to cover northern Indiana was the Wisconsin ice sheet, and its ice sheets flowed over the surface of the earth like slow-moving, crystalline rivers (glacial map right). A more recent area snow scene is shown in the photo below.

If you think it was cold this last winter, consider that 14,000 years ago, in an epoch called the Pleistocene, it was so cold that a thick layer of glacial ice covered the northern half of Indiana. Temperatures were approximately 10 degrees Fahrenheit cooler than they are now, and the lower temperature caused snow in northern latitudes to build up, deeper and deeper, until it compressed under its own weight to form glacial ice sheets. These ice sheets flowed over the surface of the earth like slow moving, crystalline rivers.

In Chain O' Lakes State Park, you can see dramatic evidence of a catastrophic outburst of meltwater that marked the collapse of the ice sheet as the Pleistocene climate warmed. The park consists of eight interconnected lakes that occupy a deep, narrow gorge known as a tunnel valley. The tunnel valley formed below the glacier when torrents of meltwater were suddenly released and cut deeply into the bed. After the flow of meltwater waned, gravel and sand were deposited in tunnels below and channels within the melting glacier, creating an extensive system of winding, sharp-topped gravel ridges know as eskers. These eskers wind along the floor of the gorge. Continued melting of large, debris-covered ice blocks between the eskers resulted in the system of lakes for which the park is named. These "kettle" lakes, and the steep sided eskers that meander among them, are one of the finest examples in the Midwest of a classic glacial landscape. So take a drive to Chain O' Lakes State Park, hop in a canoe at the Long Lake boat launch, and take off on a paddling adventure into the Pleistocene!

Once you are done with your canoe trip, put on your hiking boots and head out onto the park's 11 miles of trails. As you hike along, you will see layers of sand and gravel that were deposited by streams of water running off from the melting glacier. You will also see "glacial till"--gravel, rock, and other material carried in the glacial ice and deposited once the ice melted. Some of the glacial debris over which you will walk was carried all the way from Canada.

To get to Chain O' Lakes State Park, take Route 33 to Merriam, then turn north on Route 9, which will lead right to the park. The park is open from 8 a.m-11 p.m. daily. If you are visiting Chain O' Lakes this summer, you may want to end your visit with a tour of the park's nature center; the center, which is in an old schoolhouse, has nature programs, interpretive exhibits about the wildlife and history of the park, and educational activities for children. The nature center is open Memorial Day until Labor Day from noon- 4 p.m.

This ice age day trip is brought to you by the Indiana Geological Survey-an institute of Indiana University.

Visit the Indiana Geological Survey Web site at:

http://adamite.igs.indiana.edu

Visit the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Web site to learn more about Chain O' Lakes:

http://www.ai.org/dnr/statepar/parks/chain/chain.htm

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