On August 23, 1996, Mark Schurr hosted an informal workshop on the Goodall focus at the Archaeology Laboratory, University of Notre Dame. The meeting was held in the recently remodeled laboratories and classrooms assigned to the archaeology program at the University of Notre Dame.

Mark Schurr (University of Notre Dame) reported on recent Notre Dame fieldschools held at the Bellinger and Goodall sites in northwest Indiana. Schurr reported that habitation materials were found in association with the badly plowed mound at Bellinger. Although pothunters have disturbed the Bellinger mound, the central tomb is still intact. The tomb lacked evidence of logs, but there were empty trenches flanking the central tomb. The tomb contained secondary burials (two adults and one child), but no associated artifacts. Excavation in an associated habitation area revealed the presence of a midden with ceramics, expanding and contracting stemmed projectile points, and two obsidian flakes. Research at the Goodall site began in 1996, and Schurr will continue in 1997 with a University of Notre Dame fieldschool.

William Mangold (Indiana Department of Natural Resources) reported on his research in the Galien River basin, which drains into Lake Michigan at New Buffalo, Michigan. Mangold noted that only three site with Middle Woodland ceramics are known, but there is one mound site near the mouth of the Galien River.

Elizabeth Garland (Western Michigan University) reported on-going excavations at a site in the middle Kalamazoo River drainage. Of particular interest is the apparent horizontal separation of different Middle Woodland ceramic assemblages. Four different ceramic components have been identified thus far, and each is horizontally separated. The site is located on a slumping bank of the Kalamazoo River and several features are present.

Janet Brashler (Grand Valley State University) reported recent research at a site in the central Grand River basin. The site has been extensively collected since 1961, and a large and diverse range of material culture has been recorded. Testing in 1996 yielded evidence of a dense and possibly stratified Middle Woodland midden with good faunal preservation. Brashler reported an AMS date of 60 B.C. on a Hopewell rimsherd from the 1996 test excavations. Further research is planned in 1997.

Mark Lynott (National Park Service) described recent research with the Missouri University Research Reactor to develop a reference collection of geological clays for northwest Indiana to be used in sourcing prehistoric ceramics from the region. Lynott proposed that ceramic compositional studies might help to resolve qustions about the source of Goodall ceramics and the origins of the Goodall focus.