The edge of Northwestern’s lakefill is a popular spot for many students: whether they’re going for a run along the lakeside path, relaxing in a hammock with a good book, or sitting on one of the lakefill’s painted boulders, gazing pensively out at the glistening waters of lake Michigan.
But wait a second–where did those boulders come from? How did they even get here? What purpose do they serve, and why should we care? Rose Carlson has the story.
This story originally aired as part of the homophones special broadcast in Spring ’24
[LOUD MACHINE WHIRRING, GRAVEL CRUNCHING, LAKE]
A bulldozer, a barge, and a bunch of rocks.
That was the start of Northwestern University’s lakefill. What is now a grassy, tree-dotted haven complete with a lagoon and buildings galore was once nothing more than a small, unremarkable section of Lake Michigan.
[LAKE SOUNDS]
Not a single person swung in a hammock, searched library shelves, or scored championship-winning goals atop its then-aquatic surface.
But a desire to expand the academic and research capacities of the university prompted the conversion of this lake area into land, for classrooms, fields, concert halls and more.
it was an idea that president of the board of trustees John G. Searle called….
JOHN SEARLE: daring in concept and design, and bold in execution.
…in his speech at the October 1964 dedication of the lakefill campus.
But what was the design, exactly? How does one create land from no land?
[ROCKS SOUND]
Rocks. You start with a ton of rocks. Well, okay. Not a ton of rocks– two hundred twenty-four thousand five hundred tons of rocks, if we’re being numerically accurate.
[PENCIL ON PAPER SOUND]
Chicago architecture and engineering firm Skidmore, Owens and Merril approached the lakefill challenge like a coloring book. Initial construction focused on the building of a seawall which ran largely parallel to shore and over one thousand feet from the edge of Northwestern’s campus.
[RECORDING OF LAKEFILL]
That seawall is now visible as the giant, painted boulders at the edge of the present-day lakefill.
BRADLEY SAGEMAN: You’ve probably seen a few winter storms on Like Michigan. They can be pretty energetic. So the rip rap–that stuff is called rip rap that they put along the shore–is intended to essentially stabilize the shore and prevent erosion of the shore.
That’s Dr. Brad Sageman, a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Northwestern and co-Director of the Trienens institute for sustainability and energy.
Sageman said limestone and related rocks were likely chosen for the sea wall because of their hardness and relative source proximity to Evanston.
SAGEMAN: There are a number of other quarries, many quarries around the midwest. So by choosing that material, you fundamentally reduce the transport distance to bring it to the site.
[TRUCK SOUND EFFECT]
Electrical engineer John Sanderson wrote in 1968 that the University initially planned to transport all of the limestone for the seawall via trucks. But after Evanston’s City Council shared concerns about potential damage to city streets, the university agreed to largely employ aquatic modes of transportation.
[TYPEWRITER KEYS SOUND]
Sanderson wrote that this QUOTE “proved to have been a wise decision because had the material been delivered by truck, there would have been some ONE-HUNDRED-FIFTY-THOUSAND truck loads of the largest highway semi-trailers.” END QUOTE.
[TYPEWRITER DING, GRAVEL SOUND]
Illinois limestone first met its seawall fate on July eleventh, nineteen-sixty two, when crushed pieces of the rock were shoved into the lake Michigan waters by a bulldozer atop a barge.
The limestone ranged in size from dust to 50-pound rocks, and was moved directly to Evanston from Romeoville, Illinois, on barges via the Chicago Sewage and Ship Canal, the Chicago river, and, of course, Lake Michigan. After the core was placed, larger limestone rocks from the same source were positioned above it in a similar manner.
A picture from the October 1964 edition of the Northwestern Alumni news depicts that pivotal first day. University president Dr. J Roscoe Miller and university vice president Mr. William Kerr watch the bulldozer closely—but despite their presence, there was no official university celebration to memorialize the start of sea wall construction. And it all had to do with the dunes.
[SAND BLOWING IN THE WIND]
Controversy arose in April 1962 when it was widely publicized that the sand for the actual lakefill would be sourced from the Indiana dunes, a treasured natural landmark.
Illinois Senator Paul Douglas was active in dune conservation efforts during the late 1950’s and early ‘60s. He urged Northwestern to change its contract in order to purchase from companies who would not source from the dunes.
A little background: the area of the Indiana dunes to be dredged was owned by Bethlehem Steel. The Chicago sun-times reported in April 1963 that Northwestern signed with its dredging companies allegedly before knowing where these groups would dredge the sand from. When it was discovered that the sand would be sourced from the Indiana dunes, these companies were prohibited by Bethlehem Steel from exiting their contract and looking for sand elsewhere.
[TYPEWRITER SOUNDS]
Wilmette resident James H. Labadie was one of many who expressed their frustration in letters to the university.
Labadie wrote, QUOTE “One is nauseated, but not surprised, to learn that a third rate institution like Northwestern plays footsy with an outfit like Bethlehem steel in the desecration of the Indiana Dunes.
[TYPEWRITER DING]
“It is truly most appropriate that Northwestern, an insult to the honorable word ‘University’, brought sand from this bunch of crooks.” END QUOTE
But it wasn’t just letters.
[MARCHING BAND AUDIO]
A version of Northwestern’s fight song, complete with updated lyrics credited to Pat Walsh in University archived documents, pointed a finger directly at the institution.
I will provide a recreation of said song under the condition that the listener recognizes that this is for demonstrational purposes only.
“We’ll blame Northwestern, when they wreck the dunes. They can get the fill more cheaply, other places give it freely….”
The syllables don’t quite line up with the original, but… you get the idea.
All of this fanfare motivated the university to enact a public relations program which called for minimal coverage of the start of construction on the sea wall, in order to avoid encouraging QUOTE “New activity on the part of the Save the Dunes Committee and their followers resulting in additional unwanted press coverage.” END QUOTE
[SAND IN WIND]
But enough about sand. Let’s go back to the sea wall.
[SOUND OF CRUNCHING BOOTS]
As you’ll recall, the first two layers were made of pieces crushed of limestone, transported by barge from Romeoville with relative ease. The wall was constructed kind of like a trapezoid– a design cross section referenced by Sanderson shows the smallest rock, or the “core fill,” forming an Asymmetrical trapezoid at the base of the lake. On top and on the lake-facing slope of this trapezoid are the the larger pieces of crushed limestone. Above this, is rock which puts the foundation below it to shame.
The cover stones, also referred to as wave absorber in planning documents, weighed over two THOUSAND POUNDS.
ANDREW MALCOLM: “They were big boulders. They were like… almost as big as a Volkswagen Beatle.”
That was Andrew Malcolm, a Northwestern alum who covered the lakefill’s dedication for the the Daily Northwestern, where he served as Executive Editor from nineteen sixty-five to nineteen sixty-six.
[TRAIN SOUND EFFECT]
The cover stone had to be transported by rail and truck from Bloomington, Indiana: over two hundred miles away from Northwestern’s campus.
When each load of limestone boulders arrived in Evanston, it had to be loaded onto a barge. Once near campus, it was extremely difficult to place the cover stones in the intended, orderly manner, Sanderson wrote.
RICHARD CHEVERTON: “There was a crane and they would pull up a big barge and the crane. You could hear the engine going and you’d hear the sort of very, they were very loud splashes when they would shove the rocks, pick them up and drop them into the water.”
That was Richard Cheverton, Northwestern alumnus and nineteen sixty-three to nineteen sixty-four Editor-in-Chief of the Daily Northwestern.
[ROCKS SOUND]
The first installment of land was ultimately finished in 1964, but many of the university’s most notable buildings–Walter Athletics center, University library, Norris, and others, still were yet to be built.
It’s worth noting that while Northwestern’s lakefill may have been a vital part of the school’s Evanston campus for the past sixty years or so, the limestone that forms the lakefill’s backbone has existed for hundreds of millions of years.
[CALM MUSIC PLAYS]
Much of the limestone throughout Illinois and the midwest traces its origin back to the shallow sea which existed over the area more than three hundred million years ago. Algae secretions, shells, and dead coral accumulating on this seafloor deposited calcium, which, along with carbonate mud, compacted under the weight of overlying rock to produce limestone, or calcium carbonate rock, also known as calcite. .
That rock has completed a drastic journey – from contact with the warm waves of an inland sea over three hundred million years ago…
To the whir of a steam drill during excavation, the rapid back-and-forth of a bandsaw,the tug of a barge,the lifting arm of a crane, and now, the frigid, crashing waves of Lake Michigan, where, through sun and snow, it sits, slowly eroding, on the edge of Northwestern’s lakefill campus.
Special thanks to Northwestern University Historian Kevin Leonard and the staff of the Northwestern University Archives for their vital role in supporting the research for this story. Thank you also to Andrew Malcolm, Richard Cheverton, Brad Sageman and Stu Van Ormer for their time and insights.
I’m Rose Carlson, for WNUR News.
Additional sourcing:
Sound effects and music, apart from the Northwestern lakefill recording, are from Pixabay.
The recording of Mr. Searle was sourced from the University Archives’ digitized recording of WNUR’s broadcast of the lakefill dedication ceremony.
Further details about the sea wall process and overall lakefill design were sourced from the Northwestern University Archives. Documents referenced included archived issues of the Northwestern Alumni News and the Daily Northwestern, as well as the papers of former Vice President for Planning and Development Franklin Kreml and the records of former Vice President of Facilities Management Ronald Nayler.
Primary sources surrounding the Indiana Dunes controversy were sourced from the papers of Mr. Kreml.
The John Sanderson writings were sourced from a paper copy of a speech given by Mr. Sanderson at the 1968 annual meeting of the National Association of Physical Plant Administrators of Colleges and Universities, preserved in the University Archives.
Information about the geologic history of the midwest was sourced from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources.
