Dunes Residents Mark Final Thanksgiving in Homes

By Nina Settappa

Dunes Residents Mark Final Thanksgiving in Homes

June 18, 2010

BEVERLY SHORES, Ind. (AP) - Dozens of people who live within the boundaries of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore have celebrated their final Thanksgiving in their homes.

By next Thanksgiving, their homes will be government property.

On Sept. 30, the national park will claim their homes overlooking Lake Michigan, leaving many elderly residents to find other housing after living 40 or more years in the same house.

Eighty-five-year-old Doye Grimm says she can't bear the thought of leaving the Portage home where she and her late husband raised three children.

Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore Superintendent Costa Dillon tells The Times of Munster there are 38 names representing 26 properties that the park will claim by the end of 2010.

He says the residents sold their homes to the national park years ago and they'll have to move out, regardless of their age.

(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)