Prehistoric Indian Artifacts from the City of Chicago	by Edmund A. Butkus
Central States Archaeological Societies 2025 April Journal	Crown Point, Indiana

Figure 1. North side Chicago Bowmanville Site notched blade, measuring 5 ?” in length and various projectile points.

 

The writer was born and raised on the south side of Chicago in the 1940s, 1950s and throughout the 1960s and lived in the district that is a neighborhood called Fernwood. This was interrupted by three years of military service in the U.S. Army from 1964 through 1966. Collecting Indian artifacts and other collectables started in the early years in grammar school and then developed into an interest in archaeological studies of prehistoric Indians, historic Indians and early white settlers. This developed through the years into more than just a hobby, but an avocation that is still pursued by the writer.

Artifacts submitted with this article were collected and found by the author and early collectors from the past who lived in Chicago. The first site location is known as the Bowmanville Site and was surface hunted by an old time Indian artifact collector, Mr. Philip Schupp, who lived on the north side of Chicago on Foster Avenue near the location of the site. Mr. Schupp collected here from the 1880s through the early 1900s. Mr. Schupp found his first axe on the Bowmanville site in 1887, and the last axe he found there was in 1907. Many other collectors and farm workers found artifacts from the Bowmanville Site. This site is now destroyed by housing developments and was situated where the North Shore Channel branches off the North Branch of the Chicago River by Foster Avenue. During prehistoric Indian times, a small gulley with springs was located where the North Shore Channel branches off from the river. This man-made channel known as the North Shore Channel runs north and enters Lake Michigan in Wilmette. The high ground on the east side of the river and gulley was made up of a series of sandy knolls that were once the habitation sites of various prehistoric Indian cultures. These cultures are from the Archaic, Woodland and Upper Mississippian periods. Artifacts collected from the Bowmanville Site indicate that Archaic and Woodland Indians were the most prevalent cultures that occupied this site.

The second site in this report was discovered and collected from by the writer from about 1963-1980. The author named this site the Pulaski Road Site that is located within the Chicago City limits on the northeast corner of 115th Street and Pulaski Road. The site location is situated on the far southwest side of the city. Part of the site was destroyed when a small retention pond was constructed. Prehistoric Indian cultures represented here are Late Paleo through the various Archaic cultural phases. Several Hi Lo Late Paleo points and many Archaic projectile points, blades and other chipped stone tools were found here. No ground stone implements such as axes were found. The absence of ground stone tools and blunt points may indicate that the main habitation part of the site may be located elsewhere on part of this same sandy ridge that already held housing developments and a cemetery when the author was collecting here. Correspondence with past farmers indicate that both the northwest and southeast portions of this same ridge was where they also found many prehistoric Indian artifacts when they farmed prior to development. The developed parts of this ridge area cover an expansive ...

Read the complete "Prehistoric Indian Artifacts from the City of Chicago" column in the Central States Archaeological Societies 2025 April Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2026