A significant portion of this investigation consisted of interviewing informants. Conscientious artifact collectors possess detailed knowledge of their areas and are a valuable resource for documenting archaeological site locations. Further, contact between the professional and amateur archaeological communities fosters good will and facilitates better communication, which in turn may increase the number of reported accidental discoveries and hopefully educate the public about problems of illegal excavations. Projects focusing on informant interviews in areas of data deficiencies or rapid urbanization are monies well spent.

Collectors were interviewed by the authors who recorded site locations on 7.5-minute United States Geological Survey topographic maps, along with any pertinent information for each site. Because of the rapid advance of urban sprawl, priority was given to collectors around the Indianapolis area. Also the till plain area east and southeast of Indianapolis was targeted because of the low number of previously recorded sites. (The list of potential collectors who could be interviewed within the study area was by no means exhausted.) Prior to this investigation, only 103 archaeological sites were recorded for Hancock County; this study was able to add 36 sites to this number through collector interviews. The junior author completed Indiana state site forms for each of the sites recorded, and the originals have been submitted to the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, Division of Historic Preservation and Archaeology for review. A total of 181 sites were reported during this investigation with 154 previously undocumented sites added to the state's records. (Reconnaissance survey was not conducted on the reported site locations.) For a summary of all the sites recorded by collector interviews, see Table 2.1 immediately following this section.