Biohazard and Crime Scene Remediation in Ogden Dunes, IN

Ogden Dunes is an exclusively residential town on the Lake Michigan shore in Portage Township, Porter County, lying within Indiana Dunes National Park and nearly surrounded by the city of Portage.

The town is named for Francis A. Ogden, a multimillionaire who owned the land before his death in 1914 and valued it mainly for its sand, which could be scooped up and sold while lake currents naturally replenished it.

Developer Samuel Reck bought more than 500 acres of dunes from Ogden's estate in 1923; the town was platted in 1924 and incorporated in 1925, partly to secure a long-term right of way across the New York Central Railroad tracks.

The developers planned a resort community with a golf course, clubhouse, and hotel, but those plans were dropped as development lagged, and sand roads served the town until cinders were laid on the main street in 1931.

In the late 1920s Ogden Dunes had the largest ski jump in the country, a 192-foot-tall, 500-foot-long slide that hosted international meets; Norway's 1932 Olympic medalists came to try it before the tower was dismantled in 1932 and later re-erected as far away as Eau Claire, Wisconsin.

Ogden Dunes residents helped lead the fight to save the dunes: in June 1952, Dorothy Buell and 22 other women met at her home on Cedar Court to found the Save the Dunes Council, a driving force behind today's Indiana Dunes National Park.

Ogden Dunes had only 50 residents in 1930 and peaked at 1,499 people in 1990; the 2020 census counted 1,168 residents.

The town's 1,168 residents live in about 534 households, with a median age of 56.2 years, and many of its roughly 625 homes are weekend or summer places owned by Chicagoans.

Nearly half of Ogden Dunes is water: of its 1.46 square miles, about 0.72 square miles is Lake Michigan shoreline water.

Commuters ride to Chicago from the Portage/Ogden Dunes station on the South Shore Line, and U.S. Route 12 runs along the town's southern edge.