From 1800 to 1822, Joseph Bailey's arrival to set up fur trading along the Little Calumet River, along with railroads, a race track, a mineral spa, and brick factories, helped shape the ever changing face of the Town of Porter. In 1826, the Treaty of Mississinewa gave Indiana a shoreline with Lake Michigan, and in 1836 Porter County was established. Originating in 1858, the Town of Porter has had many different names, including Bailytown, Old Porter, and Hageman. In 1899, Dr. Henry Chandler Cowles published "Ecological Relations of the Vegetation on Sand Dunes of Lake Michigan" in the Botanical Gazette, leading to his being named the father of plant ecology and to international recognition of the duneland ecosystem. From 1900 to 1908, the Prairie Club of Chicago formed and called for preservation of part of the Indiana Dunes, and the Chicago South Shore and South Bend Railroad began operating. In 1916, Stephen Mather, first director of the National Park Service, proposed creation of the Sand Dunes National Park of 12,000 acres. In 1923, Richard Lieber, first director of the Indiana Department of Conservation, received legislative authorization for the Indiana Dunes State Park, a 2,182 acre park along 3 miles of Lake Michigan shoreline. In 1926, the Indiana Dunes State Park celebrated its grand opening, nearly 63,000 visitors came during its first three months of operation, and the Dunes Highway, U.S. Highway 12, opened. In 1958, Senator Paul Douglas introduced the first bill to establish an Indiana Dunes National Monument, and in 1966 Congress authorized Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. From 2000 to 2005, the Marquette Plan was adopted as a regional strategy to redevelop the Lake Michigan shoreline, improve transportation infrastructure, and transform the economy of Northwest Indiana, and the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority was created. In 2008, the Town of Porter celebrated its 150th birthday, and in 2013 construction began on the Dunes-Kankakee Trail connecting Lake Michigan to the Kankakee River.