Horseshoe Bend	by Paul Herrick
Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 January Journal	Mackinaw, Illinois

This excerpt from "Horseshoe Bend" published in the 2022 Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 January Journal Read this and mores in the Central States Archaeological 2022 January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2023
Semi-Lunar Slate Knives from New York.

Out of all the places that I had the opportunity to artifact hunt, Horseshoe Bend has to be my favorite. The main reason was the family that farmed the ground. They are some of the nicest people you would ever want to meet. The other of course is all the artifacts that I have found on the site. I first started looking at Horseshoe Bend in the early 1990s when I stopped to ask an elderly farmer if I could walk his fields. From the start I was welcomed with open arms. I remember that first time parking the truck and taking no more than a few steps and finding an Early Woodland Kramer point. After his passing, his son farmed the ground and once again I was always welcomed. After his grandson started to show an interest in artifacts I would always leave one of my finds for him.

This year when I stopped by, the son told me he is retiring and won’t be farming it anymore. But he told me to go ahead and have fun. The field wasn’t worked up much so I was a little disappointed. But the new farmer had pushed back the trees on the edge with a dozer and tilled the soil a little bit where the equipment had done the work. I wasn’t finding much other than some flakes of flint but enjoying the day nonetheless. This site sits on a sandy finger that is a pinch point on the river. There is one area that I have always stopped and enjoyed the view. It is on a little rise that looks out over the bottom ground. Through my eyes I envision what could have been a backwater shallow lake or wetland in times past.

I also have several sites that ring this area where I’ve found numerous artifacts. This spot is a lot like the others that I have looked on in this stretch of the river. There is a small Early Archaic representation with bifurcated points being the dominant point type. There is some Middle and Late Archaic, but it is predominately Woodland.

What was different about this site was the amount of scrapers and uniface blades that I’ve found Plus the amount of heat-treated flakes that tend me to think tool production. This area has an abundance of glacial till of varying quality left over from the melting glaciers. After stopping for a minute I proceeded to a corner that is lower than the rest and over the years has been washing down a little bit as the rainwater drains away. I’ve found some nice points in this corner so I really slowed down to give it a good look. The dozer had done some work there so it was an area that they had tilled a little bit.

What’s funny about arrowhead hunting is you keep looking back and forth .....

 

Read other great columns in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2022 January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2023