Stylistic Similarities to the Fox Valley Point	by Edmund A. Butkus
Central States Archaeological Societies 2026 January Journal	Crown Point, Indiana

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Figure 1.First row - Large Fox Valley points from LaSalle and Peoria Counties, Illinois. Second row - Classic Fox Valley points from Cook and Will Counties, Illinois with the center point from the St. Louis, Missouri area. Third row - Variants of the Fox Valley point from Kankakee County, Illinois

For many years the writer has been intrigued with the classic Fox Valley Archaic projectile point also known as the Clipped Wing point. The distinctive style, possible functionality and relatively small distribution range, are what makes this point so fascinating.

The actual use of the Fox Valley point has never been proven, but only speculation as being used as a fishing or aquatic mammal hunting point. The Fox Valley point is found both with and without serrations. Workmanship can vary from thin finely worked points to average quality examples. Most Fox Valley specimens are small size points with some larger ones being over two inches in length (Fig. 1). These points have small straight bases that sometimes have a small basal notch. A variety of lithic materials are utilized for knapping these points from local and non-local sources. Many Fox Valley points are made of from local lithics found in northern Illinois such as pebble chert, glacial chert, Starved Rock flint and Des Plaines Valley chert. Some of the non-local cherts employed are Attica chert, Burlington flint and a variety of other non-local stone materials. There are variations of the Fox Valley point that are from the same cultural time period that are found further east and southeast of the heart area where the classic Fox Valleys were recovered in larger numbers. The heart areas for classic Fox Valley points appear to be in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois and occasionally outside the main area. The Fox Valley variant is sometimes found within the heart area and then becomes more prevalent further east into Indiana and beyond. The writer will show the difference between the classic and variant forms in the accompanied photograph. The writer has seen classic Fox Valley points found far from their normal range that were found in the St. Louis, Missouri region and a single specimen from Louisiana.

The main focus of this report is to demonstrate similar style points that mimic the Fox Valleytype that are found in two entirely different environmental zones in the United States and are from later cultural time periods than the Fox Valley types. The writer is not saying that all these points are similar, but a few are as seen in the accompanied photos. These similarities are very interesting, but are most likely just a coincidence. People past and present are motivated to change things because of adaptation to new environments, that result in new types of lodging, clothing, tools and what they hunt and eat according to their new environment.

The first environmental zone where these similar point styles are found are ...

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