Diana of the Dunes by Janet Zenke Edwards

Author:Janet Zenke Edwards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Published: 2011-02-25T16:00:00+00:00

Wren’s Nest, the Ogden Dunes home of Alice and Paul. The cabin was destroyed in 1925, but its smokestack was reportedly present until the early 1930s. This photo is from the Gary Post and Tribune’s June 19, 1922 edition.

The couple never legally married, but later mentions refer to their “common-law” marriage. They named their new abode Wren’s Nest.

A later news account about their relationship describes the chores Paul did for Alice, including catching fish, gathering wood, foraging for the daily menu, repair jobs and “other man-sized duties and burdens which she shouldered.”129The author took care to note that Alice continued to help in these pursuits and mentioned that, on rare occasions, the couple took sightseers out on their fishing boat.130

Paul relied on Alice to make visits into town for food and supplies; he seldom traveled far from the beach.

What he did not know about the dunes, Diana taught him from experience. He soon knew every inch of the dune country, from Ogden Dunes, past Waverly Beach to Michigan City. He was an expert guide and could tramp the dunes with his eyes shut.131

The same year Alice and Paul moved into Ogden Dunes, Camp WinSum—built by the Boy Scouts—rose up a block west of their shack. The campers made use of two sturdy rowboats built for them by Paul, but for the most part interaction was limited. The lack of contact was enforced by a Scout rule barring the boys from visiting Wren’s Nest: “Heavy penalties were inflicted on Scouts who violated the rule, like a week of K.P. duty. However, Diana and Paul didn’t observe the same rule, and often a large supply of food would be reported missing from the camp’s larder.”132

Despite such claims, after the petty theft charge for which he was jailed, Paul steered clear of real trouble—that is, until the summer of 1922 when a violent incident in the dunes showed just how brittle their stake in the sand hills had become.

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