The Great Dune

The Great Dune is the largest sand hill between Cape Cod, Massachusetts, and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, and its highest point rises about 80 feet above the Atlantic Ocean. It formed over thousands of years through the actions of nature and people. Wind, waves, and currents brought huge amounts of sand to the mouth of Delaware Bay, and grass and other plants grew there, holding the sand and trapping more. By colonial times, the Great Dune was 46 feet tall and covered by a pine forest. Humans later changed it when many of the trees were cut down by the early 1800's and fires burned the rest. Without plants to hold it, the sand was set loose and shifted by the wind, moving inland so steadily that it was nicknamed the "Galloping Dune." During World War Two, the Army added sand to hide a newly-constructed bunker, raising the Great Dune to its current height, and planted grass, trees, and shrubs to stabilize the sand. Its movement is not as noticeable today.

Delaware · United States