Passing the Torch	by Paul Herrick
Central States Archaeological Societies 2024 January Journal	Mackinaw, Illinois

This excerpt from "Passing the Torch" published in the 2024 Central States Archaeological Societies 2024 January Journal Read this and mores in the Central States Archaeological 2024 January Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2025
Figure 1. The Mackinaw Cache on display the Dickson Mounds Museum.

For me, I would have to say that my Grandfather Robert Richards was the most influential person in my life. He was the town historian, started the local historical society and has a museum named in his honor in Kewanee, Illinois. He definitely lit the fire of my love of history. Now it is my turn. I have a lovely 9-year-old granddaughter named Charlotte. She has always liked looking at my collection, and I have given her a point to take home from time to time.

After a three-year absence because of COVID-19, the Dickson Mounds Museum, which is outside of Lewistown Illinois, resumed “Artifact Identification Day.” After learning that the actual Mackinaw Cache (see Fig. 1) was on display I had to go. The cache was found in 1916 by boys hauling gravel about two miles northeast of Mackinaw in Tazewell County, Illinois. According to the October 1986 (Volume 33(4)) CSAJ article “The Mackinaw Cache Revisited” there were about 40 blades found. The cache was thought to be Hopewell in origin, but now there is also a theory that they could be as much as 8,000 years older. I had seen reproductions before, but never the actual cache. This would also give me an opportunity to take my granddaughter to the museum just like my grandfather did with me when I was about that age. She is starting to show more of an interest in artifacts and getting the urge to go find one. Additionally, the chance to see something as remarkable as a huge cache that was virtually found in our own backyard was too good to pass up. Furthermore, I have been fortunate to actually walk the very site the cache was found for the past 30 years, finding a number of artifacts.

David Nolan from the Illinois Archeological Survey along with several other archeologists were ...

 

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