Indian Arrowhead & Point - Treasure Valley NC

Buckshotnc

Sr. Member
Nov 5, 2012
394
412
Western North Carolina
Detector(s) used
Fisher GBII
Primary Interest:
Prospecting
The clear quartz arrowhead is so clear you can see through it, I found it about 4 years ago and now wear it around my neck on leather strap. The Grey flint point I found this past December in a small stream through the old Lookadoo Gold Mine in the 1800-1900 on my property in WNC. Flint is not native to this area so assume some trading went on west of here in the past. Also in the stream where I found the Flint Point I had found shards of pottery and stoneware and took to archaeologists and three of them looked at them and told me it was European pottery from 1700-1800s. I will try to post a picture later on this thread. Screen Shot 2020-08-31 at 8.39.38 PM.pngScreen Shot 2020-08-31 at 10.03.44 PM.png
 

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Is the Lookadoo Gold mine in McDowell County? If so it's not that far from me as the crow flies. I take my artifacts to the archeology day event they have the first of every year at Burke county's museum and ask David Moore to tell me about them. I have some black and gray flint points and he said it was brought from east Tennessee. The crystal point is a beauty and may be a Palmer, I've found one in my creek and Dr. Moore said it was a transitional paleo archaic point and could be as old as 10,000 years old, mine's in my profile pic, flint from east Tennessee. The stoneware I occasionally find is salt glazed and a couple of your pieces may be salt or alkaline glazed too and yes they are old from pioneer days from what I've been told and very cool. You will probably find some Native American pottery in that spot too. I'm not sure what type the gray flint point is but it's awesome too. Looks like you have some great spots to hunt!
 

Nice points. I am in Western NC also and have only one flint point....no clear ones, that's special! Was wondering myself where the flint material came from.
 

Thanks for the kind comments, NCPeaches, yes Dr David Moore and Associates identified the pottery and stoneware, I have more but they limited it to 10 pieces. Not sure if I showed them the quartz crystal arrowhead. Yes the Lookadoo Gold Mine is in McDowell county, had heard it mentioned in a couple of history articles and looked on our old deed from 75 years ago and the name was mentioned on the deed and the location fit the area of the mine.
Found the flint point later so Mr Moore didn’t see it.
 

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NCpeaches, Treasure Valley is located near the border of McDowell, Burke, and Rutherford. Very close to where John Sevier camped on Bedford Hill for two nights prior to the battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War. Back in the day when I drove a school bus actually picked up kids who lived there.
 

Wherever your finding the pottery pieces, I'd return with a metal detector. Good luck!
 

NCpeaches, Treasure Valley is located near the border of McDowell, Burke, and Rutherford. Very close to where John Sevier camped on Bedford Hill for two nights prior to the battle of Kings Mountain during the Revolutionary War. Back in the day when I drove a school bus actually picked up kids who lived there.

Yep I know exactly where it's at. I'm near Burkemont Mtn. If you've gone to the archealogy day at the museum our paths probably crossed lol
 

Nice points. I am in Western NC also and have only one flint point....no clear ones, that's special! Was wondering myself where the flint material came from.

Dave, sorry late responding but have a friend whose a prospector from Coker Creek Tennessee area and he said they had flint there so apparently west of NC
 

That little Point is a treasure. A point made of crystal quartz is rare anywhere. Very few are found here in the Northeast, but many more are found in NC and SC. It was a coveted lithic in your region.
 

Beautiful little clear quartz point !
The grey flint looks typical of the variety in my father's collection, that was found near the northern edge of Ashe County, NC in the 1940's. I lived over in Mecklenburg County, NC in the early 1980's and did not find any of that flint variety there, so I think the source may be north of you, as well as probably west.
The ceramic shards generally appear to date from 1800-1850, and being in the creek probably means there was a dumping site of that era upstream. I would try to follow the shards to the source and root around for old glass bottles, as well as metal detect if possible. There probably won't be many intact bottles remaining from that era, but if so they will probably be good ones. HH
 

Beautiful little clear quartz point !
The grey flint looks typical of the variety in my father's collection, that was found near the northern edge of Ashe County, NC in the 1940's. I lived over in Mecklenburg County, NC in the early 1980's and did not find any of that flint variety there, so I think the source may be north of you, as well as probably west.
The ceramic shards generally appear to date from 1800-1850, and being in the creek probably means there was a dumping site of that era upstream. I would try to follow the shards to the source and root around for old glass bottles, as well as metal detect if possible. There probably won't be many intact bottles remaining from that era, but if so they will probably be good ones. HH

Not all of the pottery and stoneware was found in a stream and a portion of it was found in a stream that heads on my property, so not thinking that it washed from somewhere else because the area it was found looks like it may have been a small village or homesite in the past and has a very good fresh water spring that I drink from today and have for the past 70+ years.
 

Nice stuff. Your pottery all appears early to mid 19th century. The bits with green were hand painted. Most of the other patterns were called "transfer" ware. They transferred the the image to the ceramic then baked it. The pottery is stoneware.
 

Thanks to all of you, sure you know a lot more about these items I've found than I do. Tremendous knowledge on this forum for which I'm thankful for and this website.
 

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