The Island Pipe	by Kenneth Bassett
Central States Archaeological Societies 2021 October Journal	Columbia, Missouri

 

This excerpt from "The Island Pipe" published in the 2021 Central States Archaeological Societies 2021 October Journal Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2021 October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2022

The Island pipe. It is made from clay and measures 5½” in length. The stem (or smoking hole) is at bottom left. The handle at the right. It is made from fired and highly polished clay.

February 9, 2018, was a windy day, the wind blowing from the northwest and cold. Even so, the weather and river stage had given me a window to hunt, which I was to learn was short lived and absent for the next two years. Canoeing across the windswept river would be challenging. I have seen motorboats capsize in the whitecaps from a driving wind. Even in these volatile extremes, the giant spacious river is docile compared to the twisting, rocky spring fed rivers of southern Missouri and northern Arkansas I paddled as a young man, where obstacles abound and flipping a canoe has a place in every floater’s recollections. At the least, no matter where you are, feeling a blast of winter wind across an open expanse of hypothermic water in a pitching boat is enough to make even the most ardent boater talk to their angel. Although nerve-racking, to my relief, I made a relatively uneventful landfall.

I wish I could describe the hunt in some inspiring way but truthfully, these long serpentine walks are mostly mundane. They are a time to leave my troubles behind and enjoy the distant outdoors. Even finding nothing, I return home feeling at least somewhat healed, but I was about to become a believer in the impossible.

My mind wanders from place to place during these plodding searches, as it was when I stepped up to and beside an unusual shape (Fig. 1) in the thinly frozen rocky mud after about 20 minutes of hunting. Its shape was unrecognizable to me, but unusual enough to prompt me to pick it up as I would a piece of firewood. I was predominantly looking for lithics - crooked edges and reflecting facets, identifying features ingrained in my eyesight, instincts and memory. I will never forget my first misconstrued impressions. It appeared to be a remnant of something of a mechanical nature, likely a part of a boat oarlock, a tubular ceramic insulator (I have found them before), a rope tie down or one of many strange things washed out of the age of steamboats. It was heavy for its size and very smooth surfaced. It appeared at first to be a solid 4” long cylinder of iron or steel cast in a mold, gray and unadorned. There was one hairline crack running straight down two thirds of its length. Some form of lever or handle resembling a duck bill was attached at an angle to one end. I rolled it in my hand and it partially emptied of mud before I realized it was hollow. My mind wandered even further from the truth. It must have been installed on a handle, like a shovel - some strange antique crooked gardening tool or the handle of one. Its weight and asymmetry was fuel for my misjudgment, along with the artifacts extreme rarity and my lack of knowledge of it. I was intrigued enough by it to take a picture and put it in a safe upper pocket beneath my layers of clothing as I continued searching, hoping for a worthy find, somewhat dismissing the object as just an interesting distraction.

Fifteen minutes later and a few hundred feet further into my hunt, ....

 

 

Read the complete column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2021 October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2022

The pipe lying next to where it was found.