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This excerpt from "Walking With Bob Jenkins" published
in the 2023 Central States Archaeological Societies 2023
January Journal
Read this and mores in the Central
States Archaeological 2023
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March
2024
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Bob Jenkins in his relic room in the early 1960s
with remarkable flint on the wall behind him as shown in Legends of
Prehistoric Art Volume 2. Photograph courtesy of Bobby Onken
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In 1962, I was nine years old and had a small collection of field grade points
all found within a quarter mile of my house. Across the street from me was
a guy by the name of Bob Jenkins, who had this insane collection of G10
relics, which I had seen maybe twice. He was reluctant to have little kids
in there, understandably, but the few times I climbed that little staircase
to see them was amazing. Needless to say, he was my hero. So how did I manage
to find myself hunting fields with him? It went like this.
Meredosia Illinois, sits on a sand bluff overlooking the Illinois River.
It holds a treasure trove of artifacts with campsites and burials from many
overlapping cultures. I can only imagine what lies beneath the homes and
yards along Washington Street. At that time, probably the most dominant feature
was a Hopewell burial mound at the end of Lake Road. We rode our sleds down
it when we were little. It was left field for our backyard baseball games.
Gene Northrup owned it and wanted to run his trotters on that land, so he
decided to have it removed.
It was like a carnival there when the heavy equipment showed up. Collectors
and archaeologists from all over were there. The dirt was so hard they had
to use dynamite to break it up, which was very cool to my brothers and me!!
A great many fine pieces were unearthed and a great many more were destroyed.
That could be a whole other article by itself. But for the sake of brevity,
we will move on.
After it was all over and everyone had gone, I was aware of the fact that
there was still a lot of untouched ground left for the picking. All the
burials were at the very base of the mound lying on sand. There was a lot
of area that was still covered with that hard black dirt. I mentioned this
to Bob, and he told me that it had all been probed and there was nothing
left to be found. Being only nine I knew that there was no way you could
get a probe in that cement! So I got permission from Gene to go in there
and dig. Bob told me to let him know if I found anything. So I began to dig
and in the summer heat the ground was like concrete. But after two or three
weeks, I hit a burial.
Now Bob had explained to me that any associated artifacts would be found
in a layer of very golden colored sand, and soon I hit that layer. I was
so excited that I ran to Bob’s house, and he came over to the hole
with Margaret, his wife. He bent down with a pocket knife and picked out
the most amazing wolf teeth beads along with shell beads. Then out came several
bone awls or hair pins. He pocketed them, but Margaret immediately stepped
in and said that wasn’t fair to me, so he gave me the pins and asked
if that was ok. It wasn’t, but I was too shy and he was my hero so
I said ok. Later he wrote the place and date of their finding and also lacquered
them for me.
I never saw those ...
Read other great columns in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2023
January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2024
