Goodall, Key Indiana Hopewell Site Preserved

Submitted by bat400 on Thursday, 29 March 2007 Page Views: 7155

Announcement publicized by the Indiana Dept of Historic Preservation.
The Goodall site is the "definition" site for many similar Adena-Hopewell ceremonial sites in the American Midwest. Though damaged by years of cultivation, the site will now be protected by the Archaeological Conservancy.

The Hopewell Culture, ca. 100 BC to AD 500, marked one of the florescent periods of Eastern Woodlands prehistory. Its monumental earthen structures and funerary offerings quickly focused the attention of early archaeologists. Some of the earliest at archaeological classification were aimed at understanding the chronological position, spatial extent, and cultural relationships of these flamboyant societies. In 1941, the Goodall focus was defined to encompass the Hopewell sites of northwestern Indiana and Southwestern Indiana. The focus took its name from the Goodall site, a complex of 22 burial mounds about 25 miles south of South Bend, Indiana.

The Goodall site is known mostly from semiprofessional excavations undertaken early in the 20th century. More recently Notre Dame archaeologist Mark Schurr and Indiana Department of Natural Resources archaeologist Bill Mangold determined that although the Goodall site is largely deflated by plowing, the bases of the burial mounds could be relocated geophysically. In addition, re-excavation of previously opened burial chambers produced a significant amount of artifacts.

In 2003 Mark Schurr alerted The Archaeological Conservancy that the Goodall site had been sold. The new owners were planning to build two family homes within the mound complex. In the course of working with Dr. Shurr to get the state permits necessary to build their homes on the archeological site, the new owners, the Hagler family, became convinced of the importance of preserving this special place. They decided to keep the land in the family but to forego building their homes there. They even took the further step of removing the land from cultivation. By 2006 Richard and Terri Hagler and their sons Steven and Robert were coming to feel that it was no longer practical to maintain the land as a private archaeological preserve, so when a private individual offered them $113,000 for their 19-acre parcel, they contacted The Archaeological Conservancy and allowed us to match the offer. To their great credit, the Haglers stuck to their handshake agreement to sell to us even as the other potential buyer escalated his offers.

------------- Paul Gardner, American Archaeology (11)1:47

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Contributor Bio for bat400: Located in the Lower Ohio River Valley, United States.

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