Dune Acres, Indiana
16 topographic sheets cover this place, the earliest surveyed in 1934 and the latest in 1991. It stands in Westchester Township. It lies in ZIP code area 46304. It stands on Dunes Creek. The Survey maps it on the Dune Acres quadrangle. 234 people lived here at the 2020 count. It stands 627 feet above sea level.
On record in Dune Acres
Buildings and businesses the archive holds for this place. Each opens its own page, with the source record it came from.
On the National Register 1 record
Dune Acres Clubhouselisted 2007
Population over time
2 figuresDune Acres grew from 182 to 234 between 2010 and 2020. These are the recorded population figures Wikidata holds for this place, reached through the Geographic Names Information System number this page is keyed on rather than by name, so they belong to this place and not to another of the same name. Most are census counts, but not all are: an early figure may be a founding or settlement estimate, and an estimate published within five years of a census is left out. The change column is computed, and is left blank where more than 20 years separate a figure from the one before it, because a gap that long is not a change between two counts.
| Year | People | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 182 | |
| 2020 | 234 | +52 (+29%) |
Topographic sheets covering this place
8 surveys from 16 printed sheetsMatched by testing this settlement's coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet in the United States Geological Survey's historical collection. Each opens the scanned sheet at the Survey.
- 1934 USGS Porter quadrangle1:48000
- 1940 USGS Porter quadrangle1:62500, 3 printings
- 1953 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:250000, 5 printings
- 1953 USGS Dune Acres quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1957 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:250000
- 1968 USGS Dune Acres quadrangle1:24000, 2 printings
- 1980 USGS Chicago quadrangle1:100000
- 1991 USGS Dune Acres quadrangle1:24000
In the county-history sources
16,139 words on this townshipCounties of Porter and Lake, Indiana : Historical and Biographical, published 1882; History of Porter County, Indiana : a Narrative Account of Its Historical Progress, Its People and Its Principal Interests, published 1912 has no passage naming this settlement, which was common for smaller places. Its township is covered in full.
The chapter on Westchester Township covers the township.
Read the chapter on Westchester Township - 16,139 words.
Fires near this place
214 since 1992Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 214 fires within 5 miles of Dune Acres between 1992 and 2020, burning about 261 acres in total. 8 started naturally. 16 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Reported cause | Fires |
|---|---|
| Missing data/not specified/undetermined | 62 |
| Debris and open burning | 28 |
| Railroad operations and maintenance | 27 |
| Power generation/transmission/distribution | 18 |
| Arson/incendiarism | 16 |
| Fireworks | 15 |
| Recreation and ceremony | 11 |
| Misuse of fire by a minor | 10 |
| Equipment and vehicle use | 8 |
| Natural | 8 |
| Smoking | 7 |
| Other causes | 4 |
The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.
| Date | Cause | Size | Reported by | Name on the report |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 7 September 2005 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | BEV SHOR 4 |
| 7 September 2001 | Power generation/transmission/distribution | under an acre | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | TAB FIRE |
| 6 September 2019 | Missing data/not specified/undetermined | under an acre | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | TREMONT STUMP |
| 4 September 2018 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 1.0 acres | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | MILL |
| 30 September 2000 | Railroad operations and maintenance | 5.0 acres | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | STEEL FIRE |
| 3 September 2000 | Arson/incendiarism | 25 acres | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | HANDCREW |
| 24 September 2013 | Recreation and ceremony | under an acre | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | BURNS DITCH |
| 20 September 2020 | Railroad operations and maintenance | under an acre | Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore | CHESTERON ASSIST |
Settlements close enough to share some of these fires:
Mines and quarries near this place
2 within 5 milesRegional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 2 workings within 5 miles of Dune Acres: 2 past producers. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Clay. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.
| Where | Site | Commodity | Status | Recorded |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorenz Brothers Pit Number 1 | Clay | Past Producer | ||
| Zehner Pit | Clay | Past Producer |
Storms near this place
5 since 2008Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names Dune Acres in 5 storm reports between 2008 and 2024: 2 thunderstorm wind, 1 flood, 1 flash flood, 1 hail. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.
| When | Event | Place named | Harm | What the report says |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January 2008 | Flood | Dune Acres | $100,000 | Several roads were closed due to flooding. Numerous basements were flooded. The Chesterton wastewater plant measured 3.25 inches of rainfall. |
| August 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dune Acres | $1,000 | Several trees were blown down on top of power lines and phone lines at Indiana Dunes State Park. |
| September 2011 | Thunderstorm Wind | Dune Acres | - | One large tree was blown down at the Indiana Dunes State Park. Four other trees were partially blown into other trees. |
| September 2008 | Flash Flood | Dune Acres | - | Interstate 94 was closed from Chesterton to the Porter-Laporte county line due to flooding. |
| May 2024 | Hail | Dune Acres | - | no account filed |
Nearest settlements
The eight closest, with where each one stands in the county. Distances are straight-line, computed from the Geographic Names Information System coordinates.
| Map | Place | Distance | Sheets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dune Acres Station | 0.8 miles | 16 | |
| Tremont | 2.2 miles | 16 | |
| Porter | 2.4 miles | 17 | |
| Chesterton | 2.9 miles | 17 | |
| Burns Harbor | 3.0 miles | 16 | |
| Haglund | 3.0 miles | 17 | |
| Meadowbrook | 3.0 miles | 17 | |
| Western Acres | 3.5 miles | 17 |
Elsewhere
Matched on this settlement's Geographic Names Information System number rather than its name, so it cannot be a different place of the same name in another state.
| Wikipedia article on Dune Acres | An encyclopaedic summary. Its text is share-alike, so it is linked here rather than copied. |
| Wikidata item Q2047917 | The structured record the population and elevation above come from. Public domain (CC0). |
Provenance
This settlement is recorded in the Geographic Names Information System as feature 433775. The sheet list is computed by point-in-boundary test against the United States Geological Survey's historical topographic inventory. Both are works of the United States government and carry no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.







