ROSSFORD, Ohio —
As the city of Rossford continues to expand, it's bumped into a slight problem: a dwindling amount of vacant land.
Now, city leaders are giving properties like the old Indian Hills Elementary School site a second look.
It's been part of a larger, 40-acre historical site since the 1960s, but with most of the artifacts having been found far away from the school, the city wants to see if the land could be usable.
"So what we're doing is taking a look at the 13 acres that the school grounds are on to see what cultural artifacts might be present in the area," Todd Audet, the Economic Development Director for the City of Rossford, said.
To do so, they've brought in a team of archaeologists and environmental consultants to scour the soil to see if any history lies below.
"These are the experts behind me, they have a trained eye to be able to know what they're looking at. It's a simple but effective process, it involves digging down in two to three-inch increments, taking that soil, putting it on the sifter box, sifting the soil through and taking what's left is really what's of interest," said Mike Coonfair, the senior project manager for CEC inc, the company behind the team.
So what have they found so far?
"Not a lot yet. There was one projectile point identified yesterday afternoon in one location and it was actually under a leaf on top of the ground," said Coonfair.
But the team says regardless of what is found, it's incredibly important to be thorough at these kinds of historical sites to make sure no history is lost before the land is used for something else, and they thank the city of Rossford for handling the situation appropriately.
"They don't want to go in and disturb something they shouldn't disturb. And so I'm very happy to be working with them on this because I think it shows a lot of forethought and patience on their part," Coonfair said.
The team is expected to turn in preliminary findings tomorrow.
Neither they, nor the city, are quite sure what the land will be used for yet, and will reach out to the public for their input sometime soon.