Hunt for Arrowheads

[Old Painless]

I'm getting too out of shape and lazy to do it much any more. Finding one, even broken brings enjoyment. But getting outside in the creek is nice.
I still don't know much about them.

 

[TDM]

That’s a great point you found! I have done many things and had lots of outdoor adventures, but I have never in 68 years ever found an arrowhead. Sure would like to find just one.

 

[2 shots]

very nice. get the point.

 

[Buckskinquin]

In my youth, an older man lived near us. I was working with him one day planting grapes, all of a sudden he said, “Hey there’s an arrowhead over there”! A recently plowed and disced field we were planting in, he walked about 30’, picked up a clump of dirt, smacked in his hands, an arrowhead, claims he saw a certain glint from the sunshine. Found out later he had baskets full of them and other ancient stone implements. Near the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation south of Buffalo, NY.

 

[Gamechaser]

I've found plenty, my mom taught me what to look for

 

[mushka]

I was at a boy scout camp on Old Hickory Lake summer of 65 teaching rifle marksmanship and there were sandbar islands out in the lake. My wife and I would canoe out to them to fish. We found several nice points out there. A real nice Summer for a pfc in the army and his spouse.

 

[Gamechaser]

I have found skinning tools,mortar and pecils, weights for holding things down in the creek

 

[Tom A Hawk]

That’s a great point you found! I have done many things and had lots of outdoor adventures, but I have never in 68 years ever found an arrowhead. Sure would like to find just one.

Me too. When I was a boy my paternal grandfather took me to see a local man who had found a great number of points while plowing by horse. Since he was close to the ground they were easy to spot as the soil turned over. I remember seeing his collection wired to large plywood board. There were many present that had been made from exotic cherts. Flint projectile points ( we call them arrow heads but a great many are actual atlatl dart points) have been source of interest my entire life. Fast forward 50 years later, I tracked down this man's daughter to ask if if I could examine his collection. She informed they had been been donated to the museum in Hammondsport. I contacted the curator and arranged for a visit and was greatly disappointed when he presented a small box containing a half dozen points. These were definitely not the original collection. It seems the curator to whom the collection was given had moved on many years prior and nobody knew nothing.

Chapter two:
I know precisely where these points were found and have visited the location several times. While the area is now an agricultural field on a high hill, the location where the points were found is never plowed. It is mark off by a post and the section between there and the wood line is never tilled. I visited with the Rochester Museum and Science Center to investigate further. They brought out a topo map and asked me to point out the location. There were hand written notations on the map exactly where the no till section was. They told me it had been professionally investigated and had no further information.

Given the large number of exotic points recovered from a relatively small tract of land I now suspect the site was a burial ground and the museum didn't want me to know any more about it.

 

[JohnBHM]

We have a small creek that runs through our property and we have found two arrow heads. Both were found after a heavy rain had deposited a pile of small stone where a second branch comes into it.
My best find was 40 years ago when visiting my uncle in Las Vegas. We took his scout out into the Mojave and went on a long hike and when we got up on a plateau for a better view we found two large rocks that seemed out of place. when we got to them we found a couple of good size pieces of flint or whatever the stone was that the arrow heads were made from along with some smaller shaped stones that looked to be used to chip off and shape the arrow heads and a pile of broken arrow heads laying on the ground. We sat on the two large stones and you could just imagine sitting there as you looked around you could see for miles in every direction while you chipped away. We left everything exactly as we found it. Sadly I lost my uncle just last week, he was a former Marine, beat cop, police detective, park ranger, firearms instructor among other things and I will never forget the time I was able to spend with him in my younger years.

 

[Eutycus]

Brings back memories. When we were kids we'd head for the creek after each rain and see what was unearthed.

 

[Uncle Miltie]

I love to fly fish but sometimes wind up looking for points instead. BTW the novaculite that point is made of makes excellent gun flints...

 

[toot]

here in the north east. I as a young lad used to walk the potato fields when they harvested them and would walk the dug rows and get the mother load. I did this at the end of summer when harvesting was done. the disk harrow would break some of them. I sometimes would find the other half / piece that was missing. that is what us kids did. those were the days. gone but not forgotten.

 

[stikshooter]

I'm getting too out of shape and lazy to do it much any more. Finding one, even broken brings enjoyment. But getting outside in the creek is nice.
I still don't know much about them.

I DO!! Along with one of my homemade (homemade ) small game points/Ed

 

[Daveboone]

I have always hoped to find one. I was with a nature centers biologist one day, when he took me to a breezy point out in a lake where he said they had found arrow heads (keeps the bugs off). We found some flint knappings which was pretty exciting. Even though all of upstate NY has been long settled, and Indian village settlements known, most are under cities/parking lots. It doesnt help that every fall a new layer of litter (leaves, etc.) is added to the ground to cover up relics.

 

[RobertE]

I’ve found a few over the years but this one was unexpected.
Went swimming at Michigan Dunes on Lake Michigan about 40 years ago and was laying on towel on the beach just occupying my time by watching girls and sifting sand through my hands. Felt something and looked and this point was in my hands. Always wondered how long it was on the beach to get so smoothed off like it is. Not the best but it was a very exciting find.

 

[Newaygo77]

I’ve spent hundreds of hours walking farm fields for artifacts, but most of my finds have been accidental. About twenty years ago I was planting a new asparagus patch and I had excavated a one foot deep trench in which to bury the roots. I had several wheelbarrow loads of dirt in a pile beside the trench when I stopped working for the day. That night, we got a heavy rain. This perfect stone axe head lay on top of the pile of dirt the next morning, exposed by the rain.

 

[Snydly]

We used to own 640 acres on the south end of the Big Horn mountains. On the west boundary were numerous Tipi rings and old fire pits. There we (mostly my younger brother) have found numerous arrow heads, scrapers, awls etc. I once took a good friend up to our land to hunt mule deer as it was a great place to hunt for trophy mule deer. After we had been wandering around looking for arrowheads, he asked me "Where is the best place to look?" Without missing a beat I answered "Walk the fence line. When the Indians crossed the fence the arrowheads would sometimes fall out of their shirt pocket." I thought it was funny.... but... a few minutes later I looked up and he was indeed following the fence line!!! I thought it was funny and he thought I was serious!! When I told him the truth, he was not amused!!

 

[Eutycus]

The fields that I used to hunt arrowheads in are no more. Most sides of the "creek" are now pastures in coastal Bermuda grass.What was farm land still is but farmed with big tractors and heavy equipment.What used to be arrowheads are now probably chips of flint.

 

[Stykbow]

I’ve found and lost a bunch over the years. We hunted them pretty hard when I was a kid, so that explains the losing a bunch. Most interesting way I found one was riding a dirt bike on the lake bank. I looked down as I was going along and saw one as I passed it. Stopped and backtracked along my path till I found it.

 

[oldwood]

I got interested in Indian artifacts as a kid. I turned over all I found to a buddy that had a large family collection , mostly picked from the shore of the Monongehela River 5 miles from my home in eastern Greene Co. , Pa.. What fired me up , was the Indian burial ground , near my Grand Parents home. The local College dug up , and left the holes open , and easy to find. As kids , my buddy and I used to go there and look at the holes. Never bothered anything , 'cause it just didn't feel right to disturb any grave site. Several years later , a local farmer plowed the field on the hill top , next to the woods where the grave sites were. Wow , a village site appeared. The Indians must have eaten a ton of Mon. River mussels. The site was about 50 yds. diameter in size , due to the ground being covered with broken mussel shells. Once the clams were eaten, the shells were not wasted , but used to keep folks out of the mud during wet weather. I gave my friend a fire stone , a skinning stone , and many arrow heads. There were no houses near the site , and I'll bet it is still the same as it was back in the mid 1950's.......oldwood