Marble Mystery Solved .

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Myself , I’ve been finding really old marbles on farm campsites, my whole artifact hunting career . I’ve questioned fellow hunters via the net and many of those folks find marbles on farm campsites, and other areas too. Some of the old red&blues are called Indian marbles and I have a few clay marbles too. I always thought these must of been some sort of trade items, especially the clay marbles. Last week I worked on a old guys well, nothing serious was wrong and he invited me into his house for a cup of coffee and to pay for the service. Inside in jars , he had a bunch of the red/blue marbles. Now this guy is over 90 years old, and I asked him if he were a collector. He said no, those just left over from childhood. I told him that on occasion I find marbles like his on old Indian camps, while searching for arrowheads....
This was his response and I quote, “ Well of course you find marbles on farms son, weren’t no rocks to shoot out here with our slingshots ! “ and , “ Arrowheds ? We use to find them all the time, shot those with our slingshots too, make a whizzz sound.” As kids they carried their slingshots everywhere... I charged for the part he needed only. Marble Mystery Solved.
While digging out my marbles to take a pic , I had a fossil that I found once on a campsite. It is inside what looks to be crystal , opinions please. Also, some old Castle trading stamps I found long ago, I can find zero info on them.
Sorry , all this stuff packed away with the mystery marbles.. JJ

[Tam]

Love that story and those beautiful marbles Lman.
My brother and I use to find arrowheads in the lakes in Mich . Same thing use them as weapons throwing and slinging them at each other and my cousins . Oh if I only had those now . Small because I was a child and they fit in my tiny hands .

[Hal Gorges]

I shot em in sling shots when I was a kid,..Lol.

[Lindenmeier-Man]

Were they more accurate that just rocks Hal ?

[Narrow Way Knapper]

I used to be pretty good with a sling shot when I was a kid. I could hit a clothes line, shoot the mangoes out of trees without bruising them, nock down paper wasp nest to eat the larvae and keep my pet boa fed with two birds or lizards a day. Good memories.

[Cecilia]

Tarzan, Hal, mangos, larvae, and boa dead giveaway…

[Narrow Way Knapper]

I guess it shouldn't surprise you that I climb trees for a living. LOL!

[antmike915]

Had a sling shot when I was a kid, the first time I used it I killed a pigeon that was sitting on my grandfather's wooden fence, I felt bad and I never used it again.

[Mattern]

Nice story. I guess I'm different in that I was hunting "indian rocks" when I was six years old. My father collected them and I wanted to be like my father. Never threw one away. A quick story. I met a guy at a powwow where I had a display. He told me his dad farmed one of the islands on the Susquehanna. When his friends and he went along, they were there for the day. He had a little wagon and he and his friends would hunt Artifact all day and put them in the wagon. At the end of the day they would go to the end of the island and throw them all in the river so when they came back they wouldn't find the same ones again. He was very serious because he now realized how valuable they are. Kim

[Hal Gorges]

Cool story Kim, but I don’t think there were any G-10s in the bunch, Lol.

[Hal Gorges]

Oh, I forgot, How long did your dad collect , and about when did he start,?

[Lindenmeier-Man]

I’ll bet there were some really nice points thrown in. Back then points weren’t worth nickel a dozen.. Sad huh ?

[Mattern]

Well Hal, He started when he was a kid also. Probably in the late 1930s. That was the heyday of arrowhead hunting His leg are bad now he hasn't hunted for maybe five years was the last time. He'll be 91 in January. so I guess he hunted about 80 years. Pretty amazing . Those old guys told stories about finding so many points that they wouldn't keep anything broken. I guess that's why I have so many broks.

[clovisoid]

The marble things makes sense, I hadn't really thought about that angle before. I just figured they were relatively visible, so easy to find without looking too hard.

[redrocks]

Good story jj..

[SDhunter]

This is all very interesting