The History of an Unwanted Artifact Collection	by Christopher Cramer
Central States Archaeological Societies 2025 January Journal	Red Creek, New York

The dams associated with the St. Lawrence Seaway project flooded several islands and adjacent shorelines during the late 1950s. Sheek Island and its Ault Park recreation area, located eight miles west of Cornwall, Ontario, were among the flooded lands. Known by its acronym APSI, Ault Park on Sheek Island was the site of a two-year archeological excavation conducted by University of Toronto and National Museum of Canada in 1956-58, just before the flooding. Many Indian artifacts were uncovered before the island and neighboring lands were inundated by up to 14 feet of water. Archeologists classified the APSI site as multi-component: “Middle Archaic, Laurentian, Archaic, Meadowood, Point Peninsula, Pickering, St. Lawrence Iroquois.”

Fast forward to Spring of 2023 when I was contacted by a local man who told me he had inherited a number of ‘arrowheads’ from an old friend who had inherited them from an old friend; the precise chain of custody remains unknown. Knowing I was anenthusiastic collector of artifacts, the owner invited me to acquire the modest collection which was packed away in plastic totes in a storage locker.

Many artifacts were labeled “A.P.S.I.” and some were labeled “Ault Park Sheek Island.” A quick internet search led me to the history of the 1956-58 excavation of this island in the St. Lawrence River.

The totes contained a few dozen flint projectie points and blades of various sizes and conditions (mostly field grade), a few hard stone tools, 100 small clay pottery sherds, and ephemera associated with the archeological project. The most outstanding artifact, which I have happily added to my collection, is a rare 3 ¼” double-notched Meadowood blade made of Onondaga chert in fine condition. (Fig. 1)

Also found in this collection were a few dozen ...

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Both faces of a double-notched Meadowood blade. It measures 3 ¼” in length and is made from Onondaga chert.