​​​​​​​How did you become aware of and interested in artifacts?

[tomclark]

I'm gonna put this on "Welcome to the Forum" because it seems appropriate.

How did you become aware of and interested in artifacts?

I'm 64. Before I was a teenager I became interested in fossils and minerals. We also had the Time-Life book series that so many families had back then and one of them was "The Epic of Man". I must have read that book a hundred times but never thought of looking for artifacts or go any further with archaeology/anthropology at the time. My father was a Biology teacher at a local High School and he took us to a few fossil sites in S. NJ river (Shark River Inlet) and many NY/NJ/Penn sites for fossils and minerals, including the Herkimer NY mines. Had quite a collection of fluorescent minerals and "diamonds". My brother eventually became a geologist! While fishing up in NJ @ 1969 I found a triangle bone point and another stone point on the Hackensack river bank. Little arrowheads. I cannot find them now... Still was not "hooked". Only on fishing, lawd the perch and crappies I caught at the same area! I was also given a large point by an archaeologist at whose house my Dad was painting as a second job with my help. I still have that one, it's one I've posted and don't even think it's NA at this point in my evolution...

I looked for gold, minerals, fossils all the years up to about 1975 when I was in College in Spartanburg, SC. We were into, with permission, going into delapidated old houses looking for historal goodies. That's another story. A friend told me about a soapstone mine nearby on a river and we went there and I found several quartz and shale points after a few trips out... that may have planted the first good seed. About 1985 I met a patient who told me about artifacts and digging. He was the director of a local historical museum. He and his family would take a small BUS to sites and dig for days. I visited his house with caseboxes all over the place of the most ungodly stuff I have ever seen and rarely seen since. Something clicked.....he asked if I wanted to go on a dig... about a week later we went to a site that was very productive. I found some worked pieces and a bucket of chips that first day. Seeing/learning the work on the pieces, getting a digger's high (from exhaustion and concentration only diggers can tell ya) I was immediately hooked. I took home every single chip and any worked pieces were like gold. Went a few more times with him, met others there, found my first whole point. Back then many diggers would throw and leave tools and brokes into their chips pile up next to a tree near their holes/workins. I picked up many killer scrapers and tools Back in the Day. Way hooked now. Spent almost every weekend for years after that on trips. My poor wife missed out a lot during those times you Young'Uns better keep that in mind if your Brunhilda doesn't go with you on all your hunts...or fishing trips or.....! I am cursed by having too many hobbies and interests. Yep.
A tight knit group of collectors eventually got together. Starts with you and another, then another few from another small group etc. lolol. Some in the groups' evolution had to leave or got shunned. Others accepted. This way we learned of new sites to dig with permission. There are very very few walking sites in FL unless it is construction or banks/beaches. I'd get a call, "Hey they are diggin over at.." and if I found a spot I'd give the same call. I'd say we had about 4 in the tightest group and maybe 20 in all the connections. I'm pretty much out of the loop these days...wah. That's how it comes and goes!

Found out about river diving about 1988. Maybe a dozen 3-4 tank dives per year, sometimes with Brownie Third Lung and about as much just snorkeling. At some point the laws changed and there was an Isolated Finds Program that let you keep artifacts found in rivers while fossil hunting (we must have a yearly permit for any fossils except plants and shark's teeth, basically any mammal bone). Then the law changed again and abolished this program so diving has not been "good" for over a decade now. About 1988 because of local finds I became interested in my county's history of Native American shell mound culture and that got me whole-hog into shell artifacts which I have been concentrating on learning about and collecting as a "specialty". About 1990 I started metal detecting,too, with some vigor lol. I would always pick up a marble or neat glass bottle boom.

I feel I missed out SEVERELY by not being exposed to more artifacts and collecting them. Though I was born with a Banjo on my knee in Alabama, where I grew up (Bergen Co, NJ) was filthy with stuff I never knew about. I might not have ever moved away lol. Now there are about twice as many people in the US than when I was born and a LOT more collectors.

[SurfaceHunter]

I was fishing at found a quartz point laying on the bank and thought it was a nice looking rock. Found it in Georgia never found one in Florida. Probably walked right past them

[flintguy]

I have always had an interest in science. As a kid the three big things were dinosaurs, space and “cavemen”. I would check out all the books on primitive man. My interest focused on the transition from ape like creatures to modern man. I loved looking at the big hand axes and crude flint tools of the Neanderthals and other versions of early man. I think that's why I still like a big gnarly tool over a well made point. I grew up in the creek behind my childhood house. Strangely, I never found an arrowhead back then. I didn't seem to have as big of an interest in Native Americans because they weren't as “old”. I even looked into Paleontology/Archaeology as a major in Collage. I was told unless you were a professor, I would make less money in that field than people working at Walmart. So I moved away from that idea. Kind of lost interest in the whole field. Fast forward two decades, to a day two years ago... I was in a creek with my son looking for frogs when I found my first point. Then a week later I found a little scrapper. Like a fever, My old interest was re ignited. I started learning about my area and could not believe how many different directions I could go with my research. Form the history, different cultures, different lithics, point styles, tools, controversial theorys. Pull a thread...and five more subjects come into view. It never ends.

[tomclark]

hale yeah!

[JoshinMO]

Good Topic Tom, I don't remember seeing That Point You got on The Paint Job.

Well I first heard about Them in School and from My Dad. An old Friend and I were walking in a Field one Day and He reached down and picked up a very nice Clovis and gave It to Me. That was about 25 year's ago and We were about 13 and I thought It was just an Arrowhead and kept It in My Sock Drawer for about 3 Year's. One Day I met Somebody that was into Arrowheads and and We became Friend's, or so I thought. We would go looking together but one Day He said He left Something in My Room when I was busy Outside He went in and took It. I did know what It was, and obviously I didn't have much to do with The Guy after that but that gave Me a determination to get out to look and find Another.

It was slow going though, a piece here and a part there. I'd get out in the clumpy muddy field and make big holes lol. Ten Pound Boot's Ha, or look at a Gravelbar carrying a Bucket with "Artifact's" in It. I got a Book at one Point, then another and so on. One Day I used The old P.R.O.S. Forum and that's where I met You Tom! A few Other's Here also. So between The Book's and Internet I was figuring out a bit more. It's neat to see Artifact's at A Museum or in a Book but actually finding Them became a bit of an Obsession. I like The Point's, The flake scar's, The gloss and finding Them.

I think about The People too sometimes, just My imagination. The Land and what It might have been like way back then. I think They are interesting and I still continue to become aware and interested in Artifacts. Have to keep Eyes peeled!

[SurfaceHunter]

That’s a shame he took it. I think I would of paid him a visit

[JoshinMO]

His way's caught up to Him.

[clovisoid]

Fun idea for a post, and good history Tom.

Growing up in a farming community in Indiana it seemed like everyone had a couple, but no one really collected them and no one really knew how to find them other than just wait for serendipitous timing of a point or tool just being so flat out exposed that you couldn't miss it. Both of my grandfathers had points, cousins, friends, always seemed to have some, 2nd grade teacher had a great axe as a paperweight on her desk, etc. Like a couple of other people have mentioned, before I could read I looked at all the pictures I could find about ancient stuff, liked pyramids, mummies, etc. in about 50 years worth of National Geographic magazines that my grandfather had. Then when I could read I went through every book our local Peabody had.

One day cutting across a plowed field I found a little stemmed point and it all just clicked and I started looking for them. Luckily one of the fields near my house had a decent sized site so it was easy to find more points. My dad had a couple of friends that actively collected and that lead to exploring some sites a couple of counties away, and that got me into shows, etc. My father never really collected, but he enjoyed finding them so he was often game for a drive to Southern Indiana or Illinois to dig on sites back when that was just a normal thing to do.

[gregszybala]

I was a terrible student in high school unless the class was history. Have always been fascinated by who and what was here long before and during the early arrival of Europeans. Thousands of years of people living all over this "New World". Fast forward a few decades, post college, post working my rear end off, post raising three sons. Once they moved out I found I had a lot more free time. I knew through reading about local tribes that lived all over the area Indians were plentiful. By reading about that I learned even more about cultures and eras. Since, I study, research, read and walk, often. Love being able to find tangible ancient history just by taking a walk.

[clambellies]

I was always interested in N/A's since I was a small kid but somehow missed the boat on realizing that you could actually find artifacts. I was always into outdoor activities and probably walked over a thousand arrowheads in my various persuits. Then when I was about 28 a co-worker showed me some points that he had found - I was hooked. I was also lucky that he graciously shared his spots with me, which gave me a real jump start in collecting.

[CMD]

I always loved what used to be called "natural history". Before age 10, I had found my first fossils, first point, and had a telescope, because I loved astronomy. Loved hunting for rocks and minerals as well. Loved history, had a Roman coin collection as a preteen, put together with allowance money.

I've described how I found my first point before, but it went like this, and I can show you my first point.

In the mid to late 50's, my summer home was in a Huck Finn landscape on a tidal river in southern RI. Surrounded by swamp Yankee farmers and the last of the rivermen in RI. These guys were still living as people did in the 19th century, literally, no electricity, no running water, etc. Summer nights sitting with them by kerosene light. Will always consider it one of the greatest blessings of my life to have lived among, and befriended, people still living in the 1800's.

One of them had frames of arrowheads all over his wall. This guy was Georgie Hammond. Maybe it was George, but never heard him called anything but George-geee. He had no kids, was half swamp Yankee, half Narragansett, and he knew I would love hunting points. Maybe because I never went anywhere without a rock hammer in my hand. So, every single time he saw me, he would say "let me take you arrowhead hunting". It was only when I was old enough that I realized I was the son he never had, and he wanted to pass his love of the hunt on to someone. To me. And I always said "not now, Georgie". I had to go crabbing, or fishing, or maybe just walking the stone walls, looking for rocks with quartz crystals.

But one time, and just that one time, I said OK when he asked, and he took my cousin and I for a walk in the small corn field next to our house. This would have been about 1956, and so that Summer I would have been 8 years old. That house is still in our family, best darn location on the entire river, I might add. A cousin lives there now, with his wife. But anyway, I found the base of an argillite Atlantic Broadpoint, and, in my mind's eye, I can still see tall as a beanstalk Georgie looking down on me, grinning from ear to ear. I wish now I had let him take me to all his spots.

It did not take off as a passionate hobby, though. In college, an uncle built his home about a mile down river from the family summer home. One day, I screened the dirt pile from his foundation hole. For only about one hour. And found what you can see in the second photo below. Late 60's. I still shake my head when I think what I might have found if I had spent a few days screening, rather then just one hour.

But the biggest turning point came when I introduced my future wife to arrowhead hunting, in 1990. We turned to the now defunct Narragansett Archaeological Society, for help learning where to look from other amateurs. I did not have a round of sites to walk. The hobby had not reached that passionate phase yet. Well, my future wife was a natural. It was quite amazing, in retrospect. I thought I would be teaching her, but she needed no lessons, and only had to see a lithic once to find every flake of that lithic in whatever field we were in. So, I had no choice but to bear down and bring myself up to her high standards. Quite frankly, my pride dictated I bring myself up to speed. And so a passionate hobby was finally born. For me, and for her. Now, almost 30 years later, so many wonderful memories of hunts together, in so many beautiful settings in RI and Ma. And when I start a hunt, I often say "thank you, George-gee, I will never forget you, and what you planted in me. Guide my steps today".

Here is my first point, circa 1956, thanks to an old swamp Yankee who just would not take "no" for an answer:



And here are the nice finds from that one hour screening further down river in the late 60's. Nice shaped piece of graphite. The foundation hole was only about 1/2 mike from the site of the largest Native Ametican graphite workings in the region. We often went mineral hunting for quartz crystals there....

[CTex]

Most of my life I have lived in rural areas, I grew up out in the Piney woods of East Texas with thousands of acres at my disposal. I spent most of my time Hunting, fishing, and just enjoying the outdoors. When I was about 10 my uncle took me and my cousin out looking for arrowheads in southern Oklahoma. I recall that we found one or two, no idea what happened to them.

Fast forward 25 years and I’m wade fishing in Central Texas on the Little Bosque River, which was about a 10-minute walk out my back door, and I accidentally found a whole point. Took it home and threw it in a tin with some other random fossils/rocks that I had picked up over the years, which is where it stayed until about a year ago. That is still the best point I have.

Fast forward another 15 years…. I was invited on a hunting lease in Central Texas. One day while walking to my stand I found a broken point. My neck has hurt ever since from looking down everywhere I walk.

I do wish the bug had bitten me as a kid, I think of all the places that would have been ideal for artifact hunting that I no longer have access too, or are now covered up by houses. Not to mention all the things I might have found if I had actually looked for points on the Little Bosque.

Great topic Tom!

[Tam]

Great post Tom and a good way to get to know people . Well my story almost mirrors Toms . Was fishing in Mich and would find points but just throwing at my brother in our usual play time . Always had a mineral and rock collection as a kid along with stamps and coins .. what a nerd . My Dad bought us not only the encyclopedia everyone seemed to have but a science addition for us two kids . My brother was like a sevant and it was fun to follow him in his hobbies . But like metioned there wasn’t much money in archeology unless you were a professor and that was not my patience .
Now what just kills me is as a teenager we camped and hiked the Sierra Nevadas for weeks at a time just living off the land in a way .Fishing and a bag of potatoes for a kid heck yeah .. I could have found obsidian points I am positive now or panned for gold . Life took over and I worked and traveled . It wasn’t till I retired that I stayed reading period books . Back in the 1500’s in Eorope and how things were back then .
Wayne comes home from a hunting trip with two larger Archaic points . I start researching for him and after I find out we are talking 5000 years old I throw down my books and start reading all I can about NA artifacts . Started with college books as I had decades to catch up . 10 books later I feel confident to go hunting with him the next year . His best friend was a artifact freak from Fl and had amazing finds .
I am hooked now with Georgia being really such a hot spot and easy pickings in my book I can’t stop. My first good find was a broken tip but at over 2 in I was doing the Barney shaking like a leaf . We have some great camps to look at and will start our own property when we move seeing as we found pottery , chips a, spalls and an archaic point in the yard . Oh and the best turtle back scrapper just digging a powerline . Hoping to do some dives in the Fl area with that friend and go over to Alabama for a look see . It’s so much fun . What a great retirement hobby . Better late then never

[Tam]

And I want to add besides the books this site has been my hot spot for hunting information . Who knew to look at an animal dig or power lines . Now to go to the steams and creeks with a mask . Really everyone here has fast forwarded my knowledge for hunting and skills for looking . I just read what you all do and follow in the foot steps of ya.

[georgiafieldwalker]

I work in agriculture so I'm out in the fields quite a bit throughout the year. I had always been intrigued by artifacts and had friends that collected from their properties but never really hunted for them. One day in 2016 I looked down and saw a tip of one peaking out of the ground. As I pulled it up it just kept coming and coming and coming and to my surprise was completely whole (Its the abbey in my avatar picture). I caught the bug right then and have been hunting and collecting ever since.

I still frequent the same field along the Ocmulgee river in Middle Ga and it has been very good to me the past couple of years but I have discovered a few more spots across the state along the way so I have a variety of lithics, colors, cultures in the collection so far.

[tomclark]

Man, what an ABBEY!

[Tam]

I can see the white or lighter area that was showing . Then all that dark came up .. like Tom said what an Abbey . Pretty exciting

[georgiafieldwalker]

Yep, thats all that was showing. That point got me hooked into this instantely.

[wmwallace]

I was 6 years old, and it was April of 1973, my Great Uncle Ike (Great by being my Grandma's brother-in-law and a Great man as well) and I were watching a Cleveland Indians game (Irony???) and during a commercial he got up and walked up his steps, told me to stay down stairs. Never been in the upstairs of Unk's house at that point but I listened. Went by the bottom of the steps because he was 80 at the time and he came downstairs with a coffee can 3/4 full of flint artifacts and arrowheads. Although I didn't know it at the time it had one of the finest E-Notches in history in my opinion, to this day haven't seen to many nicer. There was probably 100 points in the can and I loved everyone of them, still have them to this day!!! He took me on a hunt two weeks later and started to teach me how to hunt them, that is a story within itself. I really didn't catch the quivering addiction about them until I was in my mid thirties though.
Since about the turn of the century my wife of 28 years tells her friends that she is the spring and summer widow of Columbiana County. I love history, have logged thousands of artifacts in my collection found along Beech Creek in Stark Co. Ohio where I lived for 7 years, hunting 15 different farms that had fields on them along the creek, covering probably a 12 mile stretch. I am blessed to live in a great area of NE Ohio, blessed to have a great job, a great hobby and a super website to share with all of you while the weather is to crappy to hunt. There are thousands of stories, however reading Tom's post I have been thinking about getting a network of people together from the area I live now, but haven't pursued it as of yet. Great thread, hats off to who started it. _Bill

[clovisoid]

I, speaking as a Hoosier who appreciates Ohio relics, would not be offended to look at a picture of a fine E-Notch. One of my favorite types.

[Tam]

Me to what a great story .

[wmwallace]

The E-notch referenced in the story is to the left of the center piece in this frame. It was made out of Gem Flintridge lithic material. Not sure if pic shows it but has a pinkish/red cast to it and it is 3-5/16" in length, 1-13/16" in width. Between sentimental value and beauty it is my favorite piece in my collection. I always send if I find another one as nice I quit hunting. You can see why I have been treking fields 46 years since discovering that beaut in the coffee can that great man gave to me. I will load some individual pics of just it in the near future. _ Thanks for the comments on the story guys, Bill