Hunt for Arrowheads

[Jaeger]

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.

That's a great find!

 

[Eutycus]

The Indians who lived down were a tall , primitive, backwoods tribe,the Karankawas. It used to puzzle me how people who were mainly coastal fisherman could have made those arrowheads. The Indians must have had a huge network of barter and trade. I'm almost sure the arrowheads were not made down here. Not only trade but I imagine they were stolen too. I imagine arrowheads were a valuable commodity and how to make them was probably a much guarded "trade secret".

 

[Edm]

I have never found one. I have one that my grandfather found while plowing his tobacco field long ago. My dad said they used to find them a lot growing up in KY. Someday I would like to find some.

 

[2 shots]

dont think i ever found one when i went looking . i always seem to just stumble across them when doing other things.

 

[D.Summers]

We used to find them often enuf when I was a kid. But the best find wasn't an arrowhead. My brother and I were building a fence for a neighboring farmer when we decided to take a break, and have lunch under a big old oak tree that stood alone in the pasture. A big one, with spreading branches and a massive trunk. We leaned up against that tree and had our grim little lunch, a cold biscuit from breakfast, and a can of Vienna sausages, tepid water from a shared canteen. I looked down and saw a stone that caught my eye. I looked at it for a bit, for it was well camouflaged with lichen and such. Then I recognized it for what it was. I gave a shout, reached down and picked it up. "Look!" I shouted, and held it up. A perfect axe head had been laying under that ancient tree for unknown centuries. It had clearly been laying there beneath the old tree the whole time! It was well papered with lichen, and had the old stone appearance. I doubt it was ever covered with earth. I can well remember the thrill I felt holding that shaped stone in my hand!!

 

[toot]

as I stated, I used to walk the potato fields here in the north east. the joke among the arrowhead hunters was, why did the Indians always hunt in the potato fields? because there was no trees in them and it made hunting rely easy. LOL!

 

[toot]

PS- and they could get some potatoes in them for supper!!.

 

[WBNovak]

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! Always looking, never finding.

 

[Eutycus]

"If an older cousin said so,it must be true". One can imagine many myths surrounded Arrowhead hunting when kids are involved. They came in all sizes so us kids assumed they were called "birdpoints".

 

[stikshooter]

The Indians who lived down were a tall , primitive, backwoods tribe,the Karankawas. It used to puzzle me how people who were mainly coastal fisherman could have made those arrowheads. The Indians must have had a huge network of barter and trade. I'm almost sure the arrowheads were not made down here. Not only trade but I imagine they were stolen too. I imagine arrowheads were a valuable commodity and how to make them was probably a much guarded "trade secret".

Most likely not ,if you shot them you made them ! Shooting my flints they most often broke with a 40Lb stik bow so imagine what those very low poundage bows (15-30 Lbs) did . Also their bows /strings also got used up fast so if you ate critters you dedicated lots of time making/repairing your stuff ,keep in mind Cabalas was not invented yet but folks liked eating regular ! They traded for flint ,some of mine came from Ohio and I lived in Pine Island NY So never a secret as everyone made them/Ed

 

[Two Feathers]

I live in an area of Pa. proliferated with the Susquehannok Indians and in 74 years of looking have NEVER found an arrowhead. I go out looking with friends, they find a ton I find NADA!! What the heck am I doing wrong? :~))))
God bless:
Two Feathers

 

[dcrummett]

I live about three miles up a wet weather tributary of the Cimarron River south of Stillwater,OK. My grandsons and the other grandpa plant pumpkins and melons each year on some upland pastures near the creek. Sandy mantle soils blown on south winds cover the area. Every year “disking the new planting” yields shards, points, scrapers and blades. No flint for miles here. The land likely was summer camp for Plains Indians on the east side of the tall grass prairie. Years ago found a rose colored flint knife blade on a sandbar on the Arkansas River under what is now Kaw Reservoir. Fun times.

 

[oldwood]

When a kid in the 1950's, the Monongehela River 50 miles south of Pittsburgh , was an arrow head picking spot. One day out combing the western shore near my home , I found a beautiful blood read arrow point of a kind I never saw before. It was about an inch wide , nicely pointed to a sharp edge. I asked all the local "experts" why this arrow head was red , with no satisfactory answer coming forth. In about the year 2000 , a good friend and I attended an Indian artifact and Muzzleloader show. One of the exhibitors there , was a professor of American Indian antiquities , and so I asked why one of the arrow points I found as a kid was red , and not like the other dark ones we found. The prof. said some Indians tempered their flint points by putting them in fire , until red hot , then when the points cooled off , the resulting arrow point was red in color. I was happy to resolve the long time mystery , but was amazed at the years it took to gain the knowledge. ...............oldwood

 

[Eutycus]

I'm no geologist or "rock guy" but I didn't think you could heat flint until it's red hot. Seems like it would shatter.

 

[oldwood]

I think the old retired professor that told me about the Indians "tempering " flint arrow points musta read somewhere , what he told me. I never have experimented with the process.

 

[Eutycus]

Earlier I mentioned myths about arrowheads that kids believe.One of the "stories" I heard as a kid was that if a
arrowhead lays out in the sun all day a quick shower would shatter it.Even in South Texas it don't get that hot, I don't think?

 

[rmefbowhunter]

Growing up back in the 60s in the oil fields in far West Texas, my father and I had permission to hunt mule deer on a ranch west of the Pecos River, south of the Guadalupe Mountains. One day while scouting for muleys, we were walking around the base of a low Mesa when we noticed the reddish sandy soil at our feet was blackened. Upon investigation, we found evidence of charred wood from numerous campfires. Then, we stumbled upon lots of broken pieces of flint and chert. Intrigued, we shed our packs and rifles and started exploring the area more intensely. Within two or three hours we had discovered ten intact arrow and spear heads and dozens and dozens of broken or partially knapped pieces. Later that day, we relayed our tale of discovery to the rancher who was fully aware of the existence of this site. He told us in no uncertain terms to keep our mouths shut if we wanted to continue to have his permission to hunt there. He had no desire for his ranch to be 'overrun by treasure seekers'. Years later, while I was a student at the University in Austin, one of my jobs was working at the State Archives at the Capitol. In a discussion with the state archivist one day about Indian artifacts, I related our tale of discovery. He then told me that the area I described had been a "non-combat" trading zone between the warring tribes of the area, namely the Comanche, the Chiracaqua Apache and a couple of other tribes whose names I do not recall. Apparently, the tribes would meet there to trade goods, one of which were knapped flint tools. To this day, I wish I had gone back to that rancher and asked permission to more thoroughly explore the area. I still have those arrowheads in a frame.

 

[Cvkotvkse]

The Indians who lived down were a tall , primitive, backwoods tribe,the Karankawas. It used to puzzle me how people who were mainly coastal fisherman could have made those arrowheads. The Indians must have had a huge network of barter and trade. I'm almost sure the arrowheads were not made down here. Not only trade but I imagine they were stolen too. I imagine arrowheads were a valuable commodity and how to make them was probably a much guarded "trade secret".

Except for small true arrowpoints being used just before or after European contact, and ceremonial knives, etc., associated with late ceremonial mound sites like Cahokia, VERY few of the points people find today were made or used by any of the tribes/communities inhabiting the area iin the mid-1700's or afterwards. Our people were here south of the ice sheets for 15,000 years, +/- a thousand or so. The great majority of the tools were made long before the historically identified folks settled in the areas we associate with them. ( The amount of migration, relocation, blending, and emergence of new "tribes" during the first 250 years after contact was pretty extreme..)
Here in the Southeast, for example, the great majority of points people find were made between 5500 BC and 2000 BC, what DNA has been recovered from burials from that time often shows little or no connection between some of these groups and any current Native people. (They were American Indian, but their lineages died out without any identifiable genetics surviving into modern populations.)
Ñot saying that none of the tools in your area were made by the Karankawa; chances are that that most of them are MUCH older than their community...

 

[toot]

I used to take my wife with me back in the day. I would give her a row to walk with a stick to save bending down when you think the small stone might be a arrow head, and she also could not find one. as being beside on the other row, I would glance at a stone that I saw and say stop what do you see? she would say nothing, I would walk over to her row and say what is that little stone? she would say I didn't see it, it was a point. so some people have the knack & some don't. so don't give up keep looking, remember that even a blind squirrel can find a nut now and then. toot.

 

[Whitworth]

We used to find them often enuf when I was a kid. But the best find wasn't an arrowhead. My brother and I were building a fence for a neighboring farmer when we decided to take a break, and have lunch under a big old oak tree that stood alone in the pasture. A big one, with spreading branches and a massive trunk. We leaned up against that tree and had our grim little lunch, a cold biscuit from breakfast, and a can of Vienna sausages, tepid water from a shared canteen. I looked down and saw a stone that caught my eye. I looked at it for a bit, for it was well camouflaged with lichen and such. Then I recognized it for what it was. I gave a shout, reached down and picked it up. "Look!" I shouted, and held it up. A perfect axe head had been laying under that ancient tree for unknown centuries. It had clearly been laying there beneath the old tree the whole time! It was well papered with lichen, and had the old stone appearance. I doubt it was ever covered with earth. I can well remember the thrill I felt holding that shaped stone in my hand!!

I have a similar lucky story. I was metal detecting in a pasture along the Antietam outside of Sharpsburg and laying there in the grass was a stone axe head. I guess it laid on the surface year after year due to frost heave keeping it on the surface and cows had trimmed down the grass so I could see it..... That's the only Indian artifact I have ever found. Mom has a bunch she found 80+ years ago along the South Branch of the Potomac on the family farm in the "Trough" near Moorefield WVA. , she even has a pipe. Being an amateur archeologist I shudder to think of the Indian sites along the Potomac destroyed by the building of the C&O canal