Collier Lodge dig finds include coins, pottery

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Updated: January 23, 2012 3:03AM

KOUTS — More than a week into a three-week archaeological dig at Collier Lodge, the 30 or so students and volunteers at the site are already uncovering a steady stream of interesting finds.

“We’ve come up with a lot of really neat stuff,” including historic and pre-historic finds, said John Hodson, president of the Kankakee Valley Historical Society, which has sponsored the dig for the past several years.

Volunteers, as well as students and professors from Notre Dame and Indiana University-South Bend, are pitching in with the effort, which takes place Tuesday through Friday, through July 22.

Finds so far on this year’s dig, which started July 5, include an 1853 3-cent piece, in keeping with coins from 1847 and 1848 also found at the site along the Kankakee River. The area used to house Eaton’s Ferry.

“We’ve got a real, solid time frame in there,” Hodson said.

The oldest item found so far was an arrow point from around 2000 B.C. Also among the finds was an assortment of items from the Upper Mississippian period, around 1300 A.D.

In a spot that is maybe a foot in diameter, Hodson said volunteers found a knife blade, a hammer stone, pottery pieces, and mussel and other shells.

“To me, it’s like somebody had a bag and dropped it,” he said. “It’s all in one spot. That’s what was neat.”

For pictures, links to a blog and more information on this year’s archaeological dig at Collier Lodge, go to www.kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org/.