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Early Saturday afternoon I was at my st. Louis, mo home hosting my gf's-sisters-50th birthday party. I got word from a friend that the tn river was going to drop 8 VERTICAL FEET that evening. I threw kayak on jeep, packed a bag and snuck out the back door. Before anyone noticed I was over halfway to Hardin County, WAY to far to turn around. I got to the river at dark at put-in immediately. It would take 2 hours to get to my favorite hunting grounds. I wanted to be there an hour before the water started dropping. Stake my claim, so to speak. It paid off with over a dozen points that night and into the next morning. Including a Dalton, a 5in perfect copena. Around noon, I decided to go my tn home for an hour or 2 nap. I couldn't sleep, so I went back to river. As I was walking the banks I started finding a bunch of "chopper" type tools. Lots of em. So many that I had to put them in little piles to come back for. Then....I stumbled onto an ancient fire pit. At first I thought it was just someone's campfire, but upon further inspection, I realized this was a very, very old fire... the main pit was about 2' x 2' with about equal parts charcoal and burnt Redrock. The same materials were spread over a 20' radius by the river. I found more choppers and a bunch of flake tools. one edge on each of the flakes was finely pressure flaked. I assumed for cutting whatever they cooked. I also assumed all those "choppers" I found were for butchering whatever they cooked. I could be wrong, but that's what it all looked like. I didn't find any bones, but I did find several jet black (carbonized?) corn cobs. Unfortunately the water was rising and the whole thing was quickly becoming flooded 😕
it started to get dark and I decided to spend the night hunting again. I didn't find anything to speak of until daylight. First, I found a small pinetree. I nicked an ear off when I flipped it over with my kayak paddle😭it is made of Kevlar and carbon fiber, is supposedly bullet-proof and I once used it to chop a 6" diameter log in half so I could proceeded up a creek, but I won't be flipping any more possible points over with it... an hour later I found a tiny Madison in a web of roots. Then it got good. I noticed a tiny fleck of grey chert in a vast sea of clay on the banks. I knew some giant pine trees have come out of this particular site.... and sure enough, out came a beauty, prob the nicest point I've found so far. Both ears had tiny dings and there was a tiny fleck of serration out of place... but not bad for a 9000 year old piece. The imperfections appeared to occur back in ancient times. I carefully searched the clay for any other points but came up short. There were several charcoal and red viens throughout the clay, evidence of more ancient fire pits. There were also multiple arrowhead- shaped chunks missing out of the clay where points had recently fallen out of the clay and into the 30ft abyss below my kayak. I will be back to this site every chance I get.
Still high on adrenaline from my huge pinetree, I see a a barge coming down the river. I position my kayak about 5 feet from the bank,facing the bank so that when the giant waves from the barge hit, I can see if any points are exposed. Sure enough, as soon as the first wave crashes down, a 4in beauty is exposed. It's not easy trying to grab a rock off the bank, from a kayak, with set after set of 5ft waves crashing ashore, then bouncing back into the incoming waves, creating a huge swell. But I was determined to get my hands on that point and somehow managed to get it from the bank and get back to open water without flipping. I thanked the Great Spirit and examined my new point. It was a beatiful, purplish chert with blue, purple and orange viens running thru it. I'm thinking Buffalo River Chert. At first I thought it was a Benton. But when I showed it to my buddy he pointed out that the base was convex, bentons are concave usualy, occasionally straight. But never convex. The closest point type I've seen was a Benton narrow blad ie, but again, their bases are not convex.
it started to get dark and I decided to spend the night hunting again. I didn't find anything to speak of until daylight. First, I found a small pinetree. I nicked an ear off when I flipped it over with my kayak paddle😭it is made of Kevlar and carbon fiber, is supposedly bullet-proof and I once used it to chop a 6" diameter log in half so I could proceeded up a creek, but I won't be flipping any more possible points over with it... an hour later I found a tiny Madison in a web of roots. Then it got good. I noticed a tiny fleck of grey chert in a vast sea of clay on the banks. I knew some giant pine trees have come out of this particular site.... and sure enough, out came a beauty, prob the nicest point I've found so far. Both ears had tiny dings and there was a tiny fleck of serration out of place... but not bad for a 9000 year old piece. The imperfections appeared to occur back in ancient times. I carefully searched the clay for any other points but came up short. There were several charcoal and red viens throughout the clay, evidence of more ancient fire pits. There were also multiple arrowhead- shaped chunks missing out of the clay where points had recently fallen out of the clay and into the 30ft abyss below my kayak. I will be back to this site every chance I get.
Still high on adrenaline from my huge pinetree, I see a a barge coming down the river. I position my kayak about 5 feet from the bank,facing the bank so that when the giant waves from the barge hit, I can see if any points are exposed. Sure enough, as soon as the first wave crashes down, a 4in beauty is exposed. It's not easy trying to grab a rock off the bank, from a kayak, with set after set of 5ft waves crashing ashore, then bouncing back into the incoming waves, creating a huge swell. But I was determined to get my hands on that point and somehow managed to get it from the bank and get back to open water without flipping. I thanked the Great Spirit and examined my new point. It was a beatiful, purplish chert with blue, purple and orange viens running thru it. I'm thinking Buffalo River Chert. At first I thought it was a Benton. But when I showed it to my buddy he pointed out that the base was convex, bentons are concave usualy, occasionally straight. But never convex. The closest point type I've seen was a Benton narrow blad ie, but again, their bases are not convex.
. Careful out There.
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