Greetings!

There has been a surge of new memberships for the KVHS in the last few weeks. I’d like to welcome Shirley Anderson, Tim Jorczak, Cynthia Ogorek, Margaret Ruge, Jim Sweeney, Bill & Sharon Lepird, John & Marcie Donley and Jim & Marcie Donely. Welcome!!! We are very happy that the Donley families have joined our Society. The Donelys’ great-grandfather, James Donley, owned the lodge that was located on the North side of Baum’s Bridge where the Baum’s Bridge Inn is now located.

Due to a gentle nudge from the IRS on our 501 (c) (3) application we have expanded our Board of Directors. Our newly added members are: Shirley Anderson, Dean Illingworth, Hugh Martz and Dick Schmal. I want to thank all of our new board members for stepping up to the plate and accepting these positions. They also bring with them their valuable expertise to help round out our Society.

Beverly Overmyer has written, and sent to Historic Landmarks Foundation of Indiana our request to have the Collier Lodge added to their list of the top 10 endangered buildings in Indiana. After seeing the steady deterioration of the lodge I have no doubt that we should be listed. With our stabilization of the lodge at least it will give us time to accomplish the full restoration of the Collier Lodge.

Through the generosity of Greg Jancasek, KVHS now owns an original, framed, 1876 map of Porter County. There’s a story here folks. Greg follows ebay auctions and when he saw the Porter County map he thought of us and bid on it and won the bid. Greg then took it to the “The Art Gallery” in Lowell to have it framed. Gary Overmyer and I went down and picked out the frame, but in between the selection of the frame and completion, The Art Gallery had a fire. Fortunately for us and through The Art Galley’s ability to get back up and running, we now are the proud owners of a 1876 Porter County map. Thanks Greg, The Art Gallery and whoever is looking out over KVHS!

For those that received our last newsletter you’re aware of our visit from “Indiana Ghost Trackers.” We had a great time and I appreciate the respect the Ghost Trackers gave our lodge and to “those” that still, apparently, linger around. Many of the local Ghost Tracker members have shown a great deal of interest in our project and have volunteered to help us in our clean up and restoration. I think we may even get a few more new members from their group. Thank you Indiana Ghost Trackers and I’m sure we’ll be seeing more of you.

Now this leads me to our most recent KVHS adventure. In one of our previous KVHS e-mail newsletters I sent out an article from “The Times” on Dr. Mark Schurr, department of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame, and his interest in doing some archaeological research around the Baum’s Bridge area. Mark invited us to a field school in Marshall County to see what an archeological “dig” is like. Beverly & Gary Overmyer and Mary and I went Monday, June tenth, to see what it was like. Very interesting! I’ve included some pic and one shows that the Overmyers and Mary got a chance to get their hands in it too. Mark plans on coming out to our site in late July or early August to look around and work up a plan to investigate the area for early habitation. He is also giving thought to ways that the local community can be included in the project. I’m really looking forward to this. I guess the Indiana John is coming out of me. This could turn out to be a large project and of course I will keep everyone updated with it.

Remember our KVHS Picnic on September 7. Hopefully the lodge will be stabilized so we can include a walk through at the time of the picnic. I’m going to include a membership application for those that may want to join and please pass one along to a friend. This truly is going to be a great adventure!

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