Looking for artifacts in Northern Indiana (South Bend area)...any suggestions?

[GodOfRustyNails]

I live near the St. Joseph river and walk in it looking for artifacts/fossils. I find that it is tough to see them because is it an artifact or a river rock? So I saunter about banks of the river and find rocks that may or may not be artifacts. I feel lost just looking around blindly. Any ideas or help as to where there is a good solid place to look in my area? Thank you,
Steve

 

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[joshuaream]

I used to hunt many different sites around Walkerton. I don't know any farmers there any more, but anything near the Stuntz Christmas tree farm was always excellent hunting. (There was a huge site on the farm, and village sites pretty much every where near there.

The farmers were always nice. North Liberty and Lakeville also had decent sites, there were some old sand ridges that always produced archaic material.

 

[joshuaream]

Also, see if you can find copies of the two or three books written by Ervin Stuntz (of the christmas tree farm), the first one is titled "The incredible Wheel of Time" I'd guess any of the small local libraries would have copies (Walkerton, Plymoth, Bremen, N. Liberty, etc., maybe not anything in South Bend though...)

It'll give you some good local reference points for where to find sites, and see what people have found.

Ervin was past 90 when I met him several years back and his archaeological philosophy was strait out of the 20's and 30's, but like many early collectors he had an absolutely encyclopedic knowledge of the sites/counties around him.

 

[GodOfRustyNails]

I will do that right now. Thank you for the great advice.