A Chicago Boy’s Passion For Archaeology	by Edmund Butkus
Central States Archaeological Societies 2020 April Journal	Crown Point, Indiana

First arrowhead found by the writer in 1951 in Clear Lake, Berrien County, Michigan and first Clovis point made of Starved Rock chert that was found by the author near the Iroquois River in Kankakee County, Illinois.

The main objective in this article is to document the writer’s early past history of collecting Indian artifacts, growing interest in archaeology and how it evolved through the years and then connect these events to his first report for Central States Archaeological Journal (CSAJ). This article is dedicated in memory of my brother Alan Paul Butkus and wonderful parents, Ann and Casper.

The writer was born and raised in Chicago on the south side until being married in 1969 to the love of his life and soul mate, Jane. In the late 1940s and early 1950s even though the houses were close together in our neighborhood called Fernwood, there were still many empty lots and expansive prairies on both sides of our railroad tracks for kids to explore and have fun. As kids we would go out into these areas and collect butterflies, snakes, crawfish and other critters. My mother forbade and laid the law down about bringing snakes home after one got away in our basement. A group of us guys in the early 1950s would go on fishing excursions by bus to Lake Calumet and Lake Michigan. The bus driver did not appreciate us when a tackle box opened up in front of his fare box spreading fishhooks and other gear everywhere and then coming home with live fish when some flopped out onto the bus floor from a minnow bucket that was filled with lake perch and bluegill. When in the 4th grade at Fernwood grammar school, our class had a hobby day and a classmate brought in two arrowheads he had found while digging in the sand along the shoreline of Lake Michigan at Indiana Dunes State Park. Another classmate friend had a large box of arrowheads that were found on his grandfather’s farm in Ohio. The writer traded him fire crackers for two of his arrowheads. This was the catalyst that started an interest in collecting Indian artifacts at an early age and that will last a lifetime. A neighbor had a summer cottage on Clear Lake in Berrien County, Michigan and since I was friends with their two kids our family was invited for many weekend outings at the lake. At spring-fed Clear Lake we fished, went swimming and did other things that kids like to do. One of our favorite pastimes at the lake was looking for crinoid stem fossils along the sandy shoreline. One day while lying on their pier looking down into the water for fossils I found my first arrowhead in about two foot deep water, and it was perfect. From that time on my interest grew and developed into not only collecting Indian artifacts, but in the archaeology of the various Indian cultural time periods. The first time searching for arrowheads in a farm field was when my dad brought three of us that included my younger brother, myself and a friend to a farm just outside of Joliet, Illinois in Will County. We surface hunted in cut soybeans for three hours on a high hill that overlooks a small creek called Spring Creek and found five arrowheads.

In later years while attending high school a group of us students formed an archaeology club at the former Mendel Catholic High School located in Roseland, a neighborhood or district on Chicago’s south side. Our whole group went on a field trip with a priest who was the club moderator. We drove out to the Iroquois River west of St. Anne, a small town in Kankakee County, Illinois close to the Iroquois County border to search for Indian artifacts. Our group assembled and immediately proceeded to search along the high river bank and roam through farm fields that were along the river. While on this outing I found my first Clovis point, and it was perfect. When I was able to drive on my own I would go out to the farm fields and find many more sites to hunt. Back in the early 1960s there were a number ...

Read the complete "A Chicago Boy’s Passion For Archaeology" column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2020 April Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2021