The Woman Behind the Legend by William Halliar
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THE TM 911 Franklin Street Weekly Newspaper Michigan City, IN 46360 Volume 30, Number 39 Thursday, October 2, 2014 The Woman Behind the Legend by William Halliar full moon appears on the horizon, rising like a specter from the gloomy, cold depths of Lake Michigan. Slowly, bursts of light spread and refl ect from the troubled surface of the water, mixing with the inky blackness of the depths and creating a riot of sparkles refl ected from the crests of waves. As the crimson orb continues to rise, the light seems to fi ll the sky, its shape changing from a small cres- cent, to half a circle, to the fullness of a round disk sus- pended in the sky. A silhouette steps from be- tween the tall grasses that cover the windward side of the undulating sand dunes, Alice Gray relaxes in the sand at the Indiana Dunes. the graceful, naked fi gure of a woman in her early vironmentalism, murder and romance: The story of 30s. Against the darkness of the night dunes, her Alice Gray, or Diana of the Dunes as she was called, skin refl ects the rays of the rising moon and cre- still holds intrigue and mystery even after almost ates the illusion of a nymph carved in alabaster. She 100 years since her adventure began in the dunes dives silently beneath the waves, then rises again, west of Michigan City. fl inging sprays of water from her bobbed locks. My fi rst encounter with this mysterious lady came Leaving the water and standing upon the shore, she in February while I was researching another subject raises arms above her head and spins in a dance, in Michigan City Public Library’s Indiana Room. A reveling in freedom and the oneness with nature. long, low cabinet held a hanging fi le marked “Di- With a fi nal shake of her head, spraying droplets ana of the Dunes,” thick to the point of bulging with of water in the light of the ever-rising moon, she newspaper clippings recent and yellowed with age. moves gracefully, disappearing back into the shad- I began to read through these clippings to discover a ows of the forest and sand. kindred spirit of sorts who escaped the humdrum of A legend is born. the life expected of her in the city and decided to pit A story that began as a celebration of freedom herself against nature: the winds and sand of the ends in bleak tragedy: a star-crossed romance be- dunes and the tempests of Lake Michigan. tween a well-educated, well-traveled woman and I must ask the reader if any have ever entertained her rough-and-tumble “cave man.” High society, en- Continued on Page 2 THE Page 2 October 2, 2014 THE 911 Franklin Street • Michigan City, IN 46360 219/879-0088 • FAX 219/879-8070 In Case Of Emergency, Dial e-mail: News/Articles - [email protected] email: Classifieds - [email protected] http://www.thebeacher.com/ PRINTED WITH Published and Printed by TM Trademark of American Soybean Association THE BEACHER BUSINESS PRINTERS Delivered weekly, free of charge to Birch Tree Farms, Duneland Beach, Grand Beach, Hidden 911 Shores, Long Beach, Michiana Shores, Michiana MI and Shoreland Hills. The Beacher is also delivered to public places in Michigan City, New Buffalo, LaPorte and Sheridan Beach. The Woman Continued from Page 1 the thoughts that drove this woman, dubbed Diana, to turn her back on what so- ciety expected of a well-educated 34-year- old woman and declare that the life of a wage earner in Chicago was “slavery”? What brave inner spirit could cause her, in the fall of 1915, to board an eastbound South Shore train, with her last paycheck in hand, a few personal belongings in tow, and disembark at a stop in the dunes with- out shelter or plan. Diana was looking for solitude and the freedom to live life on her own terms, with- out the constraints put upon her by the society in which she lived. Few men today would have the chutzpah to do what Diana did, let alone a woman, but consider being Alice Gray relaxes at the beach sometime between the years of 1915 and 1925. a woman alone in the wilderness of Indiana in 1915. fi le at the library told of ghost stories and murder The people in surrounding communities were bewil- and of a nymph dancing naked on the lakeshore. dered, and the local newspapers could not leave the So many lurid headlines. So many confl icting tales. story alone. Through their stories — real or fabri- Who can know the truth? cated — the legend of Diana was born. I was hooked Andrew Tallackson, editor at The Beacher on Diana’s story and had to know more. and longtime area resident, loaned me a book he As with any legend, there often is a kernel of thought would shed some light on the legend and truth about it, but the more the story is repeated, assuage my curiosity. The book was “Diana of the the more it becomes embellished with the fantas- Dunes: The True Story of Alice Gray” by Janet Ze- tic and the further from truth it strays. The thick nke Edwards. Leafi ng through it, I discovered it is a scholarly effort that contained the result of much research over a period of 10 years. Edwards spent the summers of her youth at a lakefront cottage in the dunes and grew up with the legend of Diana of the Dunes. Her curiosity drove her to research Diana’s life and attempt to extricate fact from fi c- tion. She interviewed many people who knew of Diana, and a few who actually met her or had known relatives. With the aid of researcher Eva Hopkins and Jane Walsh-Brown, curator of Chester- ton’s Westchester Township History Mu- seum, Edwards began to fi t the pieces of the puzzle together. Sifting through many stories, articles and interviews, she began to lift Alice Gray from the mists of legend to Alice Gray stands amid the dunes, looking on at the the status of a living, breathing person, a shores of Lake Michigan that she so adored. woman of hopes, dreams and feelings. THE October 2, 2014 Page 3 *HWWLQJ%HWWHUEXW,PSURYHPHQW 1RW/LQHDU 7KHODWHVWPRQWKQXPEHUV WR IRU UHVLGHQWLDOVDOHVHDFK\HDU$UHDLVIURPWKHVWHHO PLOOWRWKHVWDWHOLQHRQWKHODNHVLGHRI5WH PLQXVWKHGRZQWRZQSDUWRI0LFKLJDQ&LW\ <U 6ROG ([S 6ROG 7RWDO 8QLWV 8QLWV 0HG 9ROXPH 3ULFH N 0 N 0 N 0 N 0 Janet Zenke Edwards’ “Diana N 0 of the Dunes: The True Story of Alice Gray.” ³N´ ³0´ Edwards’ book is annotated with footnotes that , UHDOO\ WKLQN WKDW ZH ZRXOG KDYH KDG D EHWWHU substantiate the chapters of Alice Gray’s life. This WZHOYHPRQWKVIRULILWZHUHQRWIRUWKH seemed like a good place to begin to uncover the UHDOO\URXJKZHDWKHUWKDWVWUHWFKHGLQWR$SULORI truth about the elusive Diana of the Dunes. I con- WKLV\HDU%XWWKHUHVWRIWKHVWDWHDQGFRXQWU\ tacted the folks at History Press, explained my mis- KDYHVKRZQDGLSIRUWKLV\HDURYHUODVW\HDU6R sion and they gave me Edwards’ email address. LWPLJKWKDYHEHHQPRUHWKDQZHDWKHU Edwards, who is a resident of the St. Louis area, 7KHLQFUHDVHWKLV\HDURIH[SLUHGVERWKHUVPH also owns a home on the lakefront in the dunes. She 6RPHVHOOHUVJHWWLQJDELWWRRJUHHG\" kindly agreed to meet with me to talk about Alice Gray. We met in late summer at the Westchester 7KH WRWDO LQYHQWRU\ FRQWLQXHV WR RXWVWULS WKH LQFUHDVHG QXPEHU RI EX\HUV 7KH RYHUDOO County History Museum, which is housed in the re- DEVRUSWLRQUDWH $FWLYHV6ROGV LVVWLOOPRQWKV tirement home of George and Charity Brown. Built EXWPRVWRIWKHKRXVHVWKDWKDYHVROGLQWKHSDVW in 1885, it is a charming Queen Anne-style resi- PRQWKVKDYHVROGLQOHVVWKDQPRQWKV7KH dence, the perfect setting for our meeting. PRQWKDEVRUSWLRQUDWHVHHPVWREHLQÀXHQFHG Gathered that day were what I consider the pre- E\DJURXSRIRYHUSULFHGSURSHUWLHVWKDWMXVWVWD\ eminent living authorities on the subject. Meeting RQWKHPDUNHWRUJRRQDQGRIIWKHPDUNHW³3ULFH around the mansion’s dining room table were: Hop- LWULJKWDQGLWZLOOVHOO´LVWUXH kins, Curator Serena Sutliff, Registrar Joan Costel- :KHQ \RX FRPSDUH WKH PRQWK SHULRG IRU lo and Museum Educator Sue Swarner. These la- WR WKH ODVW PRQWKV WKHUH LV QR dies have spent many hours gathering information, TXHVWLRQ WKDW WKLQJV KDYH JRWWHQ EHWWHU 7KH preparing a sort of dialogue about Diana that they LPSURYHPHQWKDVEHHQPRVWO\DWWKHORZHUHQG present each year in the local schools. Their goal is PHGLDQSULFHGURSSHGWKLV\HDU EXWWKH³IDWSDUW´ to keep the story alive and discuss why Diana was RIWKHEHOOFXUYHFRYHUHGDUDQJHIURP an important person in our region’s history, and to WRWKHVHODVWWZHOYHPRQWKV7KHKLJK the history of women. HQG RI WKH FXUYH KDG QRW WRSSHG IRU As my guest for the day, I was excited to introduce PDQ\\HDUV6RKLJKHUSULFHGKRXVHVDOHVDUH Sally Carpenter, retired editor of The Beacher, to DOVR LPSURYLQJ 7RWDO VDOHV YROXPH IRU LVGRXEOHZKDWLWZDVLQ7KDWLVD the group. Sally’s great-grandmother was the sister UHDOO\DVWURQJVWDWLVWLF harbor country of Paul Wilson (Eisenblatter), Diana’s “cave man,” and she had stories to recount told to her. Of course, also present was the hostess of the O: 269.469.5635 Ext. 302 meeting: Janet Edwards, researcher and author. C: 269.612.0505 Dan Coffey E: [email protected] Let’s start at the beginning. W: www.remaxhc.com Continued on Page 4 THE Page 4 October 2, 2014 What boldness, daring or perhaps desperation Continued from Page 3 of soul might have driven her can never be known, The Woman but she consciously made a break with society and Alice Mable Gray was born in Chicago on March 25, 1881, born of a time and place bursting with headed into the wilderness, a young woman alone growth and industry. She came of age when women to, as she says in her diary, “measure myself with were coming into their own, breaking free from tra- nature.” She set up housekeeping in an abandoned ditional roles and social mores.