PORTER, Ind. (AP) — The Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore is kicking off a yearlong countdown to the park’s 50th anniversary as a top Lake Michigan tourist attraction.

The National Park Service and its partners will host a 49th birthday party Thursday for the park at the Dorothy Buell Memorial Visitor Center in Porter.

That party will feature at least 10 birthday cakes to kick off the yearlong celebration of the 15,000-acre national park that Congress created in 1966 along 15 miles of Lake Michigan’s northwestern Indiana shoreline.

The (Munster) Times reports that visitors joining Thursday’s party can also view a 20-minute film about Indiana’s dunes that hasn’t been shown publicly in 50 years. The national lakeshore is located about 25 miles east of Chicago.