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."

Collier Lodge dig finds include coins, pottery

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/.

KOUTS | Boxes of shovels and wood-framed screens stood around the grounds outside of Collier Lodge in Kouts as students and volunteers sifted, dug, and sweated underneath canopies erected over archeological sites.

It was another dig conducted by the Kankakee Valley Historical Society in conjunction with Notre Dame's Mark Schurr, professor of anthropology, as well as numerous other local college and university programs.

The dig, which aims to uncover artifacts from settlers of the area, both historic and prehistoric, is a way to not only find the history of the culture-rich land in South Porter County on the Kankakee River, but also to educate students of anthropology and archeology.

"So what's your next step?" asks Schurr of a group of students as they present their findings from their morning's dig.

"We start filling out the form for level two," answers Annie Jordan, a student of anthropology at Ohio State University.

"Most of these students have never been on an archeological dig, so they have the chance to learn procedure regarding the artifacts we find and how to record them," Schurr said.

Wednesday's dig involved investigating prehistoric roasting pits found on the site, which contained bones of small animals, and the cellar of a structure, perhaps a cabin once erected on the site.

Josh Wells, assistant professor of anthropology at Indiana University South Bend, said the dig provides an opportunity to work together with local groups, and to educate the 10 students he brought with him.

Some students of the dig were just observers but perhaps will become more hands-on when they are older, such as Teresa Lansdowne, a 10-year-old from Valparaiso, who came to the site with her grandfather, Mark Johnson, of Valparaiso.

"I'm really interested in stuff from a long time ago," said Lansdowne, who said she hopes to see the students uncover an arrowhead.

The dig continues today with ground penetrating radar and resistivity testing, as well as more manual digging and sifting through July

KOUTS — More than 30 students and volunteers gathered Tuesday at Collier Lodge for an annual ritual of discovery.

Four days a week through July 22, the group will sift through the layers of soil to find hidden treasures left by riverside residents of long ago.

This is the ninth year for the project, which is sponsored by the Kankakee Valley Historical Society and is spearheaded by Mark Schurr, an associate dean at Notre Dame.

Joining him on-site this year for the first time is also a contingent from Indiana University-South Bend, a group that includes a couple of students from Indiana University Northwest.

Schurr said he first became involved when the historical society acquired the site, and members wanted to know if anything was there as they came up with plans for the land along the Kankakee River. The area was an archaeological site in the 1930s.

Schurr came down for a couple of days to check out the land. Several years later, he’s still coming down, with a growing number of participants.

"It turned into a combination field school and volunteer project," he said. "There’s a lot of artifacts and there’s a lot of really deep deposits."

Past finds at the site include a cellar and fireplace from a building that was probably the first one there, though it doesn’t exist in any records. Diggers also have found pre-historic pottery and tools in 600-year-old trash pits.

Tuesday, the group was just getting started, marking off the six plots where the dig will take place and removing grass. Joshua Wells, an assistant professor at IUSB, has known Schurr professionally for several years and looked forward to working with him again.

"This site is a really great educational opportunity for the students. It’s within an easy distance of all the campuses, and it has historical components," he said.

For IUN students Mollie Morris, a sophomore from Hebron, and Harriett Demetrakis, a senior from Merrillville, the dig offers the chance to learn more about the region’s history, especially since neither was familiar with the site.

Morris, 20, said she didn’t know about the site, and said it was "weird" that other folks don’t know about it, either.

"It’s in our own back yard and nobody is talking about it," said Demetrakis, 55, a teaching assistant in the Merrillville schools.

For more information, visit kankakeevalleyhistoricalsociety.org.