| These images of artifacts from the Claude Werner collection point up
the predominant numbers of cultures represented as inhabiting the region
in and around Will County, which date from the paleo to the dawning of
the Late Archaic Period, ca. 12,000 to 5000 BC.
The Paleo-Period saw the retreat of glacial masses and the formation
of the Great Lakes. Marshes and morainal regions just south of what is
now Lake Michigan abounded in game and the region had extensive freshwater
resources as well. All this changed in the millenia following the passing
of the glacial epoch, until such time as there were far fewer natural resources
to support larger populations, and thus, we find fewer artifacts to demonstrate
later-period occupations.
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