One of the mysteries in my life is whether I was actually told how radioactive wastes came to be dumped into Wolf Lake. Behind this question was the mystery that my family pondered every time we crossed Wolf Lake on our way to the Indiana dunes in the 1960s and 1970s: Why was there a sign on the west side of the lake by I-90 that said “RADIOACTIVE MATERIAL PROHIBITED UNLESS BY SPECIAL PERMIT”? The ongoing mystery is whether Norman MacLean, author of the A River Runs Through It, really answered the question in 1966. At the time, I was editor of the Hyde Park Herald , the weekly newspaper in the south side neighborhood where the University of Chicago is located. Sometime in the spring I received a press release inviting me to attend an event in the Jones Chemistry building on the university campus commemorating the 25 anniversary th of the identification of plutonium as a primary element.
At the event I felt out of place among the many participants in the Manhattan Project including such notables as Glenn Seaborg and Enrico Fermi, and somewhat squeamish about essentially commemorating the use of something so dangerous as the 94th element in the periodic table of elements. But the atmosphere was more like a school reunion, with men all around me sharing stories of their roles in achieving the first nuclear fission that made possible development of the nuclear bombs during World War II. I wondered how they had felt about possible exposure to radioactivity, even though I had read how the danger had not been fully understood even by scientists at the time.
A few days later I shared my feelings with MacLean, a great storyteller with whom I had become friends through our mutual interest in planting trees in the city. I knew that he had been on the university faculty during the war and knew many of the Manhattan Project legends on campus. Earlier he had told me how much he delighted in taking out-of-town visitors for a walk in the forest preserve near Argonne National Laboratory in Lemont and showing them where wastes from the project were buried. He smiled as he asked me whether I had ever noticed the strange warning sign near Wolf Lake and did I want to know why it was there? His story was that in 1945, as World War II was ending, scientists from several countries met in a room next to a laboratory in the Jones building to decide who would do what kind of experiments to learn more about plutonium. A precious sample had been flown from the University of California at Berkeley, which at the time had the only cyclotron capable of separating it from uranium.
The part of the story that seems most doubtful to me is that the sample had been left in a test tube in a sink in the chemistry laboratory next door during the discussion and that a janitor had come in and poured it down the drain. It just seems unlikely to me that a janitor would ever empty a test tube in a chemistry laboratory.
But Norman said the speculation about the possible consequences led to a decision to dig up the sewer line along 57 Street and retrieve th all the material that had been exposed to radioactivity. The wastes, he said, had been dumped into Wolf Lake. Sometime later, further consideration had led to informing local authorities about the mishap. The radioactive materials were retrieved again, he said, and this time encased in concrete and dumped into Lake Michigan.
Someone, evidently Hammond authorities, then erected the puzzling sign. As my family said every time we went by, who would ever give a permit to dump radioactive wastes in such a place anyway?
In 1973, my then 17-year-old daughter Beth needed a feature story idea for a journalism class at Columbia College she was taking while working as an editorial assistant at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Why don’t we try to solve the mystery of the Wolf Lake sign, I said, and you might get a publishable story.
Norman stuck by his story when we asked who might verify it, and said he would find out whether his long time friend Lawrence Compton would be willing to talk with Beth. Compton had been the business manager and top administrator for the Manhattan Project and successor to Robert Hutchinson as chancellor of the University of Chicago in the 1950s but was living in retirement in Michigan in the 1970s. Compton was sick, Norman called to tell me, but would talk with Beth when he recovered from an illness if we would go to Michigan.
Alas, he died soon after. Norman MacLean himself died several years later after we had moved from Hyde Park. Still later, we do not know exactly when, the sign was removed. A photo of Beth standing beside it is the only evidence we have now that it existed. But when I told this story to a group during a recent tour of the Lake Calumet Region, another participant told me that a neighbor who had died used to tell of having driven the truck that dumped the materials that caused the sign to be erected. We still speculate about the mystery behind the sign whenever we drive past the place where it stood.

In Over the Line, a reader learns much about the Wolf Lake watershed and AWLI. But it doesn’t include everything. Those who visit AWLI’s Website, wolflakeinitiative.org can learn much more. For example, on the home page select Media, then Videos, and there are visual records dating back almost two decades. Explore even further.

The 14th annual Greening of the Arts Reception, Show & Concerts opens at 5:30 p.m. Friday, October 18 at the Bernard Gallery, Calumet College of St. Joseph (CCSJ), 2400 New York Ave., Whiting.
Sponsored by the Association for the Wolf Lake Initiative (AWLI) and CCSJ, the show features local artists through November 22. As in the past, the Greening of the Arts show features artists who use recycled products or who focus on nature and the environment.
Works include paintings, prints, sculptures and photographs.
This year's artists include Claudia Charo of Hammond, painting; Pat Hansen of South Holland, painting; Rebecca Moss of Oak Lawn, photography; Tom Mullins of Whiting, photography; Robert “Piro” Ramirez of Chicago, abstract paintings in acrylic; Roman Villarreal of Chicago, painting; and Jennifer Young of Whiting, digital photography.
Participating in the student competition are entries from CCSJ.
The art show opens at 5:30 p.m. with a wine and cheese reception and live music by Abigail Pennanen of Hammond. There will be a book signing session with author Michael Boos. Over the Line is his newly published 20-year history of AWLI as an organization.
Scheduled at 6 p.m. is an artists’ forum with opening remarks by Professor Walter Skiba, associate professor of arts and humanities at CCSJ.
The program begins at 6:30 p.m. with acknowledgment of volunteers, funders and donors to AWLI in 2019. Funders include Elizabeth Morse Genius Charitable Trust, Ford Motor Company Fund, Indiana Humanities, and the Legacy Foundation of Indiana.
At 7 p.m. there will be a concert by the alternative rock band, The Brave Day. It features Bryan Pirosko, Roye Robley, and Kevin Mackowicz. The group has played together since 2002.
Formed in Hammond, The Brave Day has played throughout Indiana and Illinois. The band has released a handful of EPs, including one in 2012, titled Fast, and one in 2014, titled Act II: The Crossing.
Winners of the student competition will be announced at 8 p.m. at the end of opening day.
The concert series on the Nexus of Art and Nature will enter its second season as a benefit for the art program at CCSJ and AWLI. Subsequent performances will be held at the same time on Fridays through the run of the show. All but the second concert will be held in the Barbara Goodman Black Box Theater, adjacent to the art gallery.
On Oct. 25, organist Br. Benjamin Basile, C.PP.S. and oboist Kathryn Brtko will give a recital featuring the recently restored 19th century Kimball pipe organ in the Bernard Gallery at CCSJ.
Brother Ben is associate professor of mathematics at CCSJ. Kathryn is principal oboe with the LaPorte County Symphony Orchestra and participates in music ministry with a number of churches in the NW Indiana/ Chicago area.
Guitarist Ron Skertich of Hammond will perform on Nov. 1. He plans to do a variety of acoustic tunes with country/bluegrass flavor, some folk, and perhaps a Beatles tune.
In the past, Skertich has played with a bluegrass group and a rockabilly band.
David Dolak of Hammond will perform on Nov. 8, playing a mix of classical, classic jazz and pop music. He will add some folk songs of the region.
Dolak is a professor of instruction at Columbia College, Chicago, and teaches a course in instrument making.
The Brilliant Etesian Ensemble will perform on November 15. The woodwind group includes Lupe Esquivel, bassoon, Park Forest, IL; Ken Carlborg, clarinet, Chicago Heights, IL; Niki Juarez-Cummings, flute, Steger, IL; Larry Meschi, soprano saxophone, clarinet, and bass clarinet, Highland, IN.
The Ensemble is composed of musical friends who met through the music program at Prairie State College. Its repertoire is an eclectic mix of original compositions and dedicated arrangements, which runs the gamut from classical to jazz, pop to rock.
Tyler Bush is curator of the Bernard Gallery and serves as the director of Digital and Studio Arts at CCSJ. Jim Buiter is president of AWLI.
More information is available by calling AWLI at 219.933.7149 or 312.220.0120.

Note to Editors. Below is a list of artists with additional information:

Claudia Charo of Hammond, IN
She will exhibit an oil painting entitled: “Escupe al cielo y en la cara te caera , Escupe a la tierra y madraso te dara,” which translates to “Spit at the sky and in your face it will fall, spit at the Earth and a punch you will know”. This painting represents the disrespect humans are showing Earth. This utter disrespect of polluting and destruction of our environment will result in causing ourselves harm. This harm will not just be to the individual but to everyone on this planet.

Pat Hansen of South Holland, IL
At the show, she will be exhibiting two oil paintings. Hansen has dedicated more than 40 years to creating realistic landscapes, still lifes, florals and animal portraits. Hansen taught art at all grade levels in the East Chicago public schools. Past president of Illiana Artists, she has won numerous awards during her career, and her work is in corporate and private collections.

Rebecca Moss of Oak Lawn, IL
Moss is a naturalist with the Forest Preserve District of Cook County. She is a former AWLI director.

Tom Mullins of Whiting, IN
Mullins is a nature photographer who has exhibited locally.

Robert “Piro” Ramirez of Chicago, IL
Ramirez paints abstracts in acrylic.

Roman Villarreal of Chicago, IL
A former steel worker and founder of Hammond’s Warehouse Studio and co-founder of Under the Bridge gallery in Chicago, Villarreal sculpts multi-figured expressions of the human experience. He places an emphasis on the experiences of the Mexican-American community and people of color. He recently created an 11-foot bronze statue erected at Steelworkers Park in the South Chicago community. He has exhibited nationally and internationally. One of his stone sculptures is part of the National Museum of Mexican Art collections. Other works are among the collections of Chicago’s Field Museum.

Jennifer Young of Whiting, IN
She works in black-and-white digital photography to capture subjects with unique textures and details. Her other creative endeavors include paper-crafting, jewelry, and writing short fiction. She hopes her art can inspire, entertain, and charm. Whenever she can, she uses her creations to raise awareness for precious habitats like forgotten buildings and fragile ecosystems.