Valparaiso Moraine

From this point, the moraine curves northeast through Lake, Porter, and LaPorte counties of Indiana into Michigan.

At this time the glacier covering the area had grown thin, so it was restrained by dolomite rock layers in the Lake Michigan basin.

Where the glacier stopped, glacial till and sand was deposited, creating the hills of the moraine.

As part of the continental divide, many creeks or rivulets have their origin source in the Valparaiso Moraine.

The moraine divide was breached at the Chicago Portage gap by a canal beginning in the mid-19th century.

Younger still is the Port Huron system, which occurs in the northern portion of the Lake Michigan Basin.

The moraine angles to the south and east, reaching the headwaters of the Des Plaines River west of Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the county of the same name.

The moraine continues southward along the Des Plaines River following the route of the modern Tri-State Tollway (I-294) around the west side of Chicago.

In this area, the moraine has widened out towards the south and east, becoming a broad plain covering large portions of Will and Kankakee counties.

Through Indiana, the moraine forms a "continental divide" between the drainage of the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico by the Mississippi River.

[4] The moraine then turns northeast, passing just north of La Porte, Indiana, through the county of the same name.

[7] The drift across the Valparaiso moraine and outwash plains is the result of repetitive ice advances and intervening recessions.

It is covered by a mature beech-maple forest on the high ground and buttonbush and black willow in the ravines, potholes and near the pond.