Suburbanites dig the work of NIU contract archaeologists

by Tom Parisi

It was a dirty job, but this time everyone wanted to do it.

Or so it seemed recently as archaeologists and student workers in NIU’s Contract Archaeology Program conducted an excavation in west suburban St. Charles. The NIU crew turned the job into a unique educational experience, inviting all comers to visit the site and get their hands dirty.

The dig site was located at Campton Hills Park, where a private surveyor in 1990 discovered a spear point fragment that dates back thousands of years. The St. Charles Park District commissioned the NIU survey of about one-half acre at the popular park to find out if any other Paleo-Indian artifacts were buried there.

Over the past two weeks, NIU archaeologists and graduate students led a series of tours that drew about 200 visitors, from families to seniors to amateur arrowhead collectors. The NIU dig also attracted the attention of numerous newspapers, including the Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Herald, Beacon News in Aurora, Courier News in Elgin and Kane County Chronicle.

“The visitors find it interesting that there’s an archaeological site in their own back yard and that prehistoric people once lived in this area,” said Karen Atwell, an NIU archaeologist who led the excavation. “It was a good experience for the public.”

Many of the visitors volunteered to sift through dirt in search of artifacts, and some even discovered tertiary flakes, or byproducts of stone tool manufacture. “The flakes are fragments of chert that have been knocked off larger pieces to make stone tools,” Atwell explained. “The point where the stone has been struck is easily recognizable.”

The spear point discovered in 1990 has been kept at the Illinois State Museum in Springfield.

The St. Charles Park District plans to someday build a community center and nature center at the site of the dig, so park officials were eager to have the area thoroughly investigated. They also wanted to make the archaeological dig a learning experience for the public.

“We feel that the more we know of the natural and cultural history of our parks, the richer the experience,” said Mary Ochsenschlager, manager of natural resources for the park district. “We will no doubt use the information discovered in our interpretations for our nature center visitors and in our nature programs.”

NIU's Contract Archaeology Program has been serving northern Illinois for more than a decade. State and federal laws mandate that many areas earmarked for development must be surveyed for potential historical significance. Private developers and governmental agencies often turn to NIU, which conducts as many as 50 surveys each year.

The Contract Archaeology Program is operated by the NIU Department of Anthropology.

The program employs a full-time staff of professionals who identify, evaluate and excavate sites of interest. It also offers archaeological opportunities to students. Over the years, NIU archaeologists have discovered everything from ancient Native American burial grounds to pioneer settlements.

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