Collier Lodge dig wraps up for summer
By Amy Lavalley Post-Tribune correspondent July 21, 2011 2:00PM
Patricia Jo Korzeniewski, a graduate of VU and with the Porter County Museum, (left) and Sarah Nixon, an Indiana University South Bend student, use a troweling technique to even the ground for mapping at the archaeological dig at Collier Lodge in Kouts, Ind. July 21, 2011. Friday is the last day for this year's dig. | Stephanie Dowell~Sun-Times Media
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More information on the Kankakee Valley Historical Society and its work at Collier Lodge can be found at www.kankakeevalleyhistorical
society.org.
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Updated: November 2, 2011 3:03AM
KOUTS — The heat may have cut short some of the dig time at Collier Lodge, but it certainly didn’t wilt enthusiasm for the project.
Students from Indiana University-South Bend and the University of Notre Dame, as well as several volunteers, started the annual archaeological dig at the lodge July 5. They wrapped up the brunt of their work by lunchtime Thursday, stopping their efforts early because of soaring temperatures.
“I gained a lot of excavation experience,” said Barb Roman, 21, a senior at St. Xavier University in Chicago who took part in the dig through Notre Dame.
Much of what she uncovered was prehistoric, from 800 years ago or so, and included pottery and knife points. Roman, who is from Rockford, Ill., is working on a minor in anthropology and hopes to go on to graduate school; the dig, she said, will definitely help.
The dig, along the Kankakee River and the former site of Eaton’s Ferry, is in its ninth year. It’s sponsored by the Kankakee Valley Historical Society and is spearheaded by Mark Schurr, an associate dean at Notre Dame.
He and Joshua Wells, an assistant professor at IUSB, said this year’s dig has gone well. Finds included prehistoric roasting pits. While they don’t produce much in artifacts, Schurr said the charcoal from the pits could be sent to a botanist, who can identify the kind of wood that was used and the types of vegetables that were roasted. The charcoal also can be carbon dated.
Wells, whose students participated in the dig for the first time, said the site, which offers both historic and prehistoric artifacts, was “a valuable educational experience.”
“They’ve gotten to see artifacts from several different prehistoric cultures,” as well as items from the 19th century, he said, “all concentrated on this site.”
John Hodson, president of the historical society, was concentrating on his theory that another building, in addition to the lodge and ferry, might have been on the site. Based on coins from the late 1800s, and research he’s done into similar sites elsewhere, Hodson thinks a store also may have been on the bank of the river.
He called it “my own little quack theory” and admitted he’d come up with a conclusion before he really had any evidence, which is “not the way science works.”
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