Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Indian Artifacts

'good finds' is an understatement.....

On the Hogsback Ridge it is pretty steep. Was this a hunting area or camp? Is there a better aera such as the top of the ridge, the east side overlooking the plains or the west side toward the mountains?

Man, I'd kill to find artifacts like that.

look on the semi-level high points with a view(camps)rimrock promontories (lookouts), fingers along washes, the tops/lips of draws running parallel to the ridge, any sandy raised hump. think 'near water' even tho ancient springs may not be flowing now....

Man, my goal is to find ONE arrowhead, you guys are so lucky! I havent had any luck at all. Mebbe I have to walk quieter? I think they hide before I get there!

found another good point. Can't decide if it's a spear point or a small knife. It has a little indent that fits the right thumb perfectly as a hand held blade....

Likely a scraper but could be a small knife. GW

plow that field

Lady hunter/collector that I know, agreed to pay for plowing/ reseading a field that fifty years earlier had produced many artifacts. Field had not be cultivated for fifty years. Work was done and it rained within a couple of days, she waited another couple of days to allow the field to dry, prior to walkin it.

As soon as the sun came up she went into the field and found no artifacts but numerous footprints left by someone who had no problem with walking in the muddy field. GW

1minute, why'd you delete your post? Those were really cool points you made.

Sorry. Go back a couple of pages and it's there. I did not look at the date in time to realize that this was a resurrected thread. See # 5031675 a page or two back.

Work was so good, he was afraid that he would be getting buy orders. 1minute ever do knaping out of flint/chert. GW

We have some chert about, but it's tough to work unless one gives it some heat treatment. We do not have flint here in the northwest, but I've worked a bit when I visited some folks back east. It too needs some heat to enhance it's workability.

Flint and chert make for tougher points than obsidian. Obsidian is the easiest of materials to work, and can generate the sharpest of edges. Cuts from obsidian are so clean that blood has a difficult time clotting on the smooth surfaces. Even small knicks will bleed for a half hour or so. The cuts disrupt so little tissue though that they are near healed in about 36 hours.

Found a couple more points. The dog treed a bullsnake in a yucca. He sure looks like the one I caught and played with a couple weeks ago about a mile away....

I was at a farmer friend of mine's last night for dinner.
He's uncovered some real good stuff over the years.

This HUGE grinding stone is something special...




W/beer bottle for scale.

haven't had time to poke around the prairie lately, but hit it this morning after chores....

Down by the creek this morning sitting on top of a pocket gopher mound.

A beautiful bird point. 1 1/16" long - 3/4" wide at the base. Set along side a Win 22lrf 40grain Power-Point.

Just down the road from me is a defunct museum called the Idaho Heritage Museum. A pot collector near here had a huge collection of artifacts he'd been collecting since he was a boy. He raised the money to open his own private museum to show it off. He also had an amazing collection of big game mounts that he'd shot over the years. You'd have to see his mule deer collection to believe it.

He had barely opened the doors when the feds moved in saying he'd collected most of his stuff illegally. Before the trial was over, he admitted that he'd got most of it along the Snake River in so. Idaho, all on public land. They confiscated all of his stuff and the place has never reopened.

Since then there have been rumors, unsubstantiated as far as I know, that many of his fabulous mule deer were taken 'under the radar' as those in high places might call it.

Nice point. Reminds me I need to get out and poke around some more.

Only artifacts that I've found lately have been empty beer cans and other trash.

Amazing how far some people will lug a full beer can but are too lazy to lug an empty can back out.