Getting discouraged and need some insight

[EDaniels]

So my youngest son, a friend, and myself went to my newest spot Sunday where I found a bunch of flakes (previous post) last time I was there. We've had some pretty intense rains the past couple weeks so I figured something for sure would turn up. We looked pretty hard for about 3 to 4 hrs and all we found was more flakes, a piece of chest with red and white on it like I've not seen before, and a bunch of fire cracked rock. I did find a point here previously and the corn was about waist high but not really hard to look through as the rows are wide. So in your opinion should I just forget this spot until next year and it's tilled again or press on? The pics are of all the flakes from just this spot including those in the jar.

 

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[releventchair]

Looks like you have located a site with at least one hearth. A heck of a start.
And...You have recovered other relics too.
That is significant.
Let alone being where others were so long ago.

But , enough of the maudlin cheer.....L.o.l..

Hard to know what was going on where.
IF you can expand out from the site you might hit on an area of particular prior activity.
A field that comes to mind turned up relics when plowed. But was distant...roughly a quarter mile from where camp/home for whatever season (s) on a lakeshore or near it was expected to be.

Was it a former marsh that had dried between then and when the recoveries were made , where wildfowl and other game were hunted?
A former small area of native prairie?
Lost projectiles accumulated over lots of time . Were more lost in use , or camp drops?
There were cultures that hardened some material under hearths. Would be no surprise if discards went in a pit , vs the chance of getting stepped on...

You seem close. And yes I'd be wanting to revisit the site again next spring .or when ground cover and crops are at thier shortest. And after heavy rain.
A satellite area could exist.
If you have a riverine route , there's two sides and two ends of it ...
High ground? Low ground? Former open area now wooded? Or former wooded area now open? Hard telling if going in blind what existed many hundreds of years and more ago.

We follow others who eyed the ground too.
Best to just keep on looking.

Congrats on your outing.
Your son should have found quite a distant history made real. The shape or structure of it? Not dependent on any perfect specimen as a "touchstone". Yet.
A fire stained stone a thousand years old? Something not encountered very many places. Less so if you're wanting to encounter such . Sometimes.

 

[uniface]

Unless its been cherry-picked, it looks like you're on a knapping locus; all you'll likely find on one of those is more of what you're finding. Fire-cracked rock though ? Maybe not.

FWIW

 

[CreakyDigger]

Yeah we've had a lot rain here in Broome Co. Not sure where you are searching but if nothing is turning up after all that water maybe wait till the field is plowed again. Head down to Nichols and if you get permission search the flats you can see from 17....but, you know, the corn is up and you might not be able to get permission until they harvest.

 

[Older The Better]

There’s a ditch I walk after nearly every rain, I’d say 90% of the time I find just a few flakes but every so often that spot gets hot and I’ll come up with a point or two and some tool fragments… then back to flakes…. They could be just under the surface just gotta keep at it.

 

[H.P.]

Judging by the size of most flakes so far, they knocked out a few preforms, small flakes mean they wer finishing the points, you don’t have many small flakes..Course I don’t know how close you look...in time you will learn to read the signs, however, it can still yield a finished point or knife blade.. if it’s not yielding now I would put it on the back burner and spend my time looki for greener pastures..of course there is another element to your situation..And that’s to spend time with your son.. most youngsters are thrilled finding anything, especially if you make over it, You got the idea by now.

 

[antmike915]

My personal opinion; I would wait for that area to get plowed again.

 

[smokeythecat]

I went into a field that had been plowed, disced, planted and rained on for 2 months. I did very well.

 

[scruggs]

Keep it on your list, the flint is there. You just never know when they will be laying there waiting on you to pick them up! You might find a nice one on your next trip. Good luck to you!

 

[EDaniels]

Judging by the size of most flakes so far, they knocked out a few preforms, small flakes mean they wer finishing the points, you don’t have many small flakes..Course I don’t know how close you look...in time you will learn to read the signs, however, it can still yield a finished point or knife blade.. if it’s not yielding now I would put it on the back burner and spend my time looki for greener pastures..of course there is another element to your situation..And that’s to spend time with your son.. most youngsters are thrilled finding anything, especially if you make over it, You got the idea by now.

There are small flakes also but there are definitely more big ones. The time I get to spend with my son definitely makes it worth it regardless if anything is found or not, and he does enjoy it and looks pretty hard. Sometimes I have to tell him there's a lot of ground to look on not just that 5 x 5 square.

 

[uniface]

Advice: look around you when you're at that 5 X 5 spot & note any high spots within maybe 100 yards of it -- even if they're only a few inches above their surroundings. Hit those hard.

 

[EDaniels]

One last time

So we had a pretty good rain yesterday afternoon and I got out of work a little early so I figured I'd give it one more look before I search elsewhere. I haven't been there since I started this thread and it kinda slipped my mind how fast corn grows as it's now over my head. I went to the opposite end of the field and across a creek and again a bunch of flakes and then I spotted it, a broken tip, then a point split down the middle, then an intact point and my day was complete. That was until I got to my truck and I'll be dammed if my keys aren't somewhere out in that field. Did a backtrack for a bit and I'm not sure how but I walked right up to them.

 

[DaveSmith]

Yeah you never know when the top layer will finally be washed away. I have lived in my house for 30 years and have a hay field with a dirt road around it 50 feet from my front door. I just recently found 2 of my biggest points in the road after all these years, both after a good rain. Good stuff, keep looking!

 

[Huzzah!]

I would still walk the rows—wear pants, long sleeves, and a boonie hat. Nice finds. Feels good when you’re in a drought

 

[CaptEsteban]

Be sure to mark this spot on a GPS, so you know the exact location to come back to after it is plowed. The field will look a lot different, then.