Flashback to Episode 6 when our guest, author Erica Ridley, told us about this fountain made of teeth that an Elkhart dentist made and that it was now a bit of attraction in her hometown. We at Defending Indiana had never heard of this delightful oddity and definitely needed to learn a lot more. Here are a few fun facts we discovered (also highlighted in Episode 10 if you want to learn even more!):
- The concrete block (not a fountain) stands in a yard at the northwest corner of Riverside Drive & Lexington Avenue in Elkhart.
- Dr. Joseph Stamp, the stone’s builder, worked as a dentist from the early ‘10s to the early ‘70s and died in 1978 at the age of 88.
- It was a memorial to Stamp’s childhood dog – a German Shepherd named Prince.
- Stamp’s granddaughter couldn’t confirm why he filled the monument with teeth by surmised that it probably saved him from buying and using a lot more concrete.
- Over his career, Dr. Stamp pulled thousands of teeth and kept all of them in a barrel with a chemical to preserve the teeth.
Have you seen the infamous Tooth Stone? Drop a note in the comments and tell us all about it.
