Home
Posted By: JamesJr Today's Tobacco Field Finds - 09/03/19
I have a spot on my farm that was once a major Indian campsite. There is a large depression in the ground, with a rock outcropping, and 2 caves. A year round stream of water flows from the smaller one, and the larger one apparently served as a shelter. The fields on 3 sides of this area have always been in crops, and I've found many points over the years, and many more were found before I bought the farm.

I never bothered to keep the broken points and pieces that had been worked but never finished, but the pickings have gotten slim over the years. My neighbor rents this part of my farm, and usually has it in no-till corn, wheat, and soybeans, making arrowhead hunting impossible. Every 3 years or so, he'll put it in tobacco, as it was this year, and I can find some stuff then. He harvested the tobacco a few weeks ago, disced the ground down, and after a few rains, I went looking this morning.

Mostly junk compared to what I've found in the past, but a good way to pass the time.
[Linked Image]
Cool!
On the farm here we have several places where at times you can find almost everything that the indians used.

Even found a few parts of a rifle and shotgun receiver.

We have 2 wallows on the south part and we thought it might have been their dumping ground.

West of us about 2.5 miles there was a playa lake that the buffalo have deepened and around it they used to find all kinds of stuff.

My Father in law has his front porch walled with old grinding rocks that he found when he broke out the farm.
Nice! Love exploring the caves near caveman/Indian settlements.
We'll be over this afternoon

Dove huntin sucks
Originally Posted by plainsman456
On the farm here we have several places where at times you can find almost everything that the indians used.

Even found a few parts of a rifle and shotgun receiver.

We have 2 wallows on the south part and we thought it might have been their dumping ground.

West of us about 2.5 miles there was a playa lake that the buffalo have deepened and around it they used to find all kinds of stuff.

My Father in law has his front porch walled with old grinding rocks that he found when he broke out the farm.


Old bison wallows are def potential places to find lithics
Posted By: hanco Re: Today's Tobacco Field Finds - 09/03/19
That’s very neat, makes you wonder how they survived without Walmart??
Cool to have a place like that...
Those look like they were not finished or screwed up in some way...is that correct ?
Do you have any idea about the tribe or age...I'm thinking pre historic maybe
Originally Posted by rainierrifleco
Cool to have a place like that...
Those look like they were not finished or screwed up in some way...is that correct ?
Do you have any idea about the tribe or age...I'm thinking pre historic maybe



This part of Kentucky was used by several tribes, Cherokee, Chikasaw, Shawnee, and probably some others from what I've read. I'm sure this was a spot that was used for thousands of years. , although I'm no expert in that field.
Originally Posted by slumlord
We'll be over this afternoon

Dove huntin sucks



Do y'all have a non-resident arrowhead hunting license for Kentucky?

LOL......I hear they're pretty pricey
Great stuff! That's a lot of items in one morning. The rounded pancake ones look like knives to me, used as they are, with a very sharp edge on one side of the curve. I found one like that in Wyoming with perfect ergonomic thumb and finger grip in my hand. It was flint and had been used so much that the chipped edge which started out razor sharp was dull, probably from skinning many buffalo.
There was a swamp on our farm the old timers told my grandfather that the Indians stoped at on there migration...sometime back about 1915 they hand dug tile and drained the swamp for farming....they found one of those grind stones. And it's in a yard in town now..I have tried to buy it but no luck yet...I did find one big point close to there it's about 2 1/2 inches long maybe a spear or knife type thing...
I'd say that maybe half of these pieces were found in that field, or in close proximity.
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]
I keep looking but still haven't found anything. Maybe one day.

How big are the caves James?
Posted By: TheKid Re: Today's Tobacco Field Finds - 09/03/19
The big serrations on some of your points are interesting. We occasionally find serrated points around here but mostly small stuff with tiny serrations.

I have noticed that stuff you and Slumlord and Renegade find is mostly the plain grey chert, some beautiful specimens but a rather plain material mostly. While we don’t find near the volume of artifacts you guys do we get lots of stuff out of really pretty Alibates flint, Texas Rootbeer flint, and occasionally a crystal point, though the crystal stuff is usually pretty crude.

That’s why the artifact thread is one of my favorites, interesting to look at the cross section of materials used around the country.
Wow! Looks like some great finds!
Originally Posted by 12344mag
I keep looking but still haven't found anything. Maybe one day.

How big are the caves James?



I live in what is known as a karst region, meaning there are a lot of caves here. Mammoth Cave is about 1 1/2 hours east of me, and that is one of the most well known caves in the country.

I actually have several caves here on my place, and have been in the one where I find the arrowheads. It has gotten to dangerous to go back in very far, because the area floods during heavy rains, and the cave constantly changes back in it. My grandfather went all the way through it and came out of the ground in a sinkhole about 300 yards from the entrance. The other cave is just too tight of squeeze for me to want to try.

A lot of the caves here are what are know as "wet caves", meaning they either have water running in them, or else flood during heavy rains. They are dangerous to go in really, and I quit doing that kind of stuff 50 years ago.
Good representation of many occupation periods.

That serrated stemmed Kirk guy sure gets around, I have 3 of those in 3 different counties.

He put an extra bit of pizzaz with bifur base stem tip on yours

Renegade had one as well.



[Linked Image]

I suspect that the Injuns, and the cavemen, were here in these parts for a very long time.
Mayan roots.

Now theyre back, to work the tobacco fields 😄
Originally Posted by slumlord
Mayan roots.

Now theyre back, to work the tobacco fields 😄


Haha........those that work for in-laws look for the arrowheads. I would love to know if they find them down in Mexico.
Dad had a buddy that was into looking for Indian artifacts and dad and I found a few when we went out with him. High sandy areas next to navigable water ways were always a good place to look. As I understand it those smaller heads with the grooved edges are bird points and the arrow heads with the flat back were the quickly made ones more for war arrows than hunting because they just split the shafts and tied the shaft around the head. What I could never figure out was why those Indians lost all those arrows? If I'd have spent all that time making one, I'd darn sure go looking for it once I'd shot it.
Originally Posted by Windfall
Dad had a buddy that was into looking for Indian artifacts and dad and I found a few when we went out with him. High sandy areas next to navigable water ways were always a good place to look. As I understand it those smaller heads with the grooved edges are bird points and the arrow heads with the flat back were the quickly made ones more for war arrows than hunting because they just split the shafts and tied the shaft around the head. What I could never figure out was why those Indians lost all those arrows? If I'd have spent all that time making one, I'd darn sure go looking for it once I'd shot it.


All about arrowheads:

https://www.thoughtco.com/arrowheads-and-other-points-facts-167277
Originally Posted by JamesJr
I'd say that maybe half of these pieces were found in that field, or in close proximity.
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

Without any particular knowledge, looks like at least 3 different types in the top pic. Saw a poster display the other day with about twenty distinctive styles from around the country and through the years.

Thinking of some of the variations in "quality" , someone learning possibly, someone got a bargain maybe? They upgraded, tossed away, gave away, sold the scrappier ones like we'd get rid of the "club" rifle when we got a better one. You'd surely use what you had to try to get some grub.

There's some darn nice tiny bird points in various shades of obsidian from the Great Basin that are spectacular. Clear, opaque, black, banded... Hell of a display in the Indian Village restaurant in Lakeview Oregon, worth the stop but I honestly don't know if the displays are still there. There's various obsidian sources. For those from non-volcanic areas might be surprised there's a flow of obsidian with trails over and around it near Newberry Crater, south of Bend Oregon. Glass Buttes was another source. I came across areas of obsidian near Beatys Butte in SE Oregon. Fun stuff.

Pictures of the farm?
Way cool, James!
Google- Poverty Point

They took that land from my grandparents. Tons of Indian artifacts have been found there. As a kid, I remember seeing barrels of arrowheads, plum bobs, cooking stones, spear points, etc, at Karl Alexandra's place, and he had found them all on Granddad's farm.

I have a few broken pieces that my grandmother gave me.
Posted By: 673 Re: Today's Tobacco Field Finds - 09/04/19
I would like to see a pic of one of these caves.
© 24hourcampfire