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This excerpt from "Arrowhead Hunting Adventures
30-plus Years Ago" published
in the 2025 Central States Archaeological Societies 2025
October Journal
Read the complete column in the Central States
Archaeological Societies 2025
October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2026 |
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left - Figure 1. The Hardin point. This is
still the author's favorite point. Bottom: - Figure 2. The Dalton point.
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On May 1, 1991, I decided to do some artifact hunting with my friend Gentry
Stevens of Indiana. Steve at the time was a student at a local college here
in town, who happened to be living in the same apartment building where I
lived. The previous week I had been looking around a county to the south
and while driving on a country gravel road, I spotted a mold-boarded and
partially chisel-plowed field on a ridge above a big creek.
We drove down to the area, learned where the owner lived and paid him a
visit. He was one of those very friendly and good-natured farmers you like
to meet when asking for permission. After a short introductory chat he gave
us the go-ahead and we drove back to the field.
The portion of the field closest to the fence line had been deeply chisel-plowed
and we started there. We found lots of debitage, camp rock and debris, indicating
that the space had definitely been occupied. However, our eyes frequently
rifted farther east along the ridgeline which directly overlooked the creek.
There, the big slabs of overturned earth effected a pull on us that was hard
to resist, so we gave up on the initial area and headed down forthwith.
Gentry promptly called me over and pointed at one of the slots of ground
exposed by the slab of topsoil having turned over, and I saw the base of
a beautiful corner-notched point sticking point down into the soil. Gentry
pulled it out to find that it was undamaged. This was back in the day before
cell phones and at the time I did not have a camera to record our finds.
We both found some more points and then moved back to the car. Upon reaching
the first area we had searched but not finished, something told me to keep
looking there. While Gentry went directly to the car for food and drink,
I continued walking up and down the rows of turned earth.
As I went along the row next to last from the fence line, something stopped
me. I looked down and spotted a ...
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October Journal which can be purchased on-line after March 2026
