My Best Day

[Bow Only]

Since the Grim Reaper told such a great story, I thought I'd tell one. This happened in 1986 and was one for the ages. My Dad worked for the local co-op and knew all the farmers in the area. Jeff Paulk told him he ought to go look one of his fields over by the creek because he always sees flint out there. Dad went and checked it out and sure enough, it was a good site. Dad only found 8 or 10 points that first trip but the lithic scatter was over 5 acres. It was a big multi-component site with a huge Woodland component. The field just wasn't quite right for looking so we waited until planting season. The excitement was high when Dad told me that Jeff bottom plowed the field and we just had big rain. I practically jumped out of the truck and made my way towards the field. The dirt was perfect. The rain had knocked it down and anything on the surface just jumped out at you. I walked across the hill (Mound 1) and found a piece of Weeden Island Plain pottery as big as my hand. The bottom plow had just pulled it out. Then another, and another. I always wore a nail apron around my waist and a small army ammo bag over my shoulder. The nail apron was filling with pottery pretty fast when I found my first point. I moved on towards the village site where I saw a point sticking up. I walked over to get it and saw a point before I got there. I picked it up and stepped towards the 1st point I had seen and saw another point. I couldn't believe it. I had found 3 points back-to-back-to-back. Standing there admiring and getting the dirt off my points, I looked around. I saw another, and another, and another, and another. My jaw dropped as I saw 11 more points from where I was standing. A total of 14 points came from an area no bigger than my living room. I methodically picked them up one by one. I put them in my bag, in my apron, in my pockets, and held them in my hand. I had a rule that I didn't ever want any points to touch while in the field but I didn't have a choice that day. Between myself and my Dad, we found 150 points that day. Only 75 were whole points, but I kept all of the brokes too. That was a very special place and I lost track of the number of times we found 30 or more whole points from that field. I sprinkled some of my Dad's ashes in that field, it was his favorite.

 

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[kenstein]

Great story, Bow, and great memories with your Dad. Merry Christmas.

 

[quito]

The kind of stuff dreams are made of.

I hope everyone can run into a day like that in their lifetime. Thanks for sharing!

 

[Americus]

That is an incredible story. And I thought my finding 13 whole points an pocketfuls of broken points was an great day.

 

[Mrdigz]

Wow! Thats one sweat haul and it's even more meaningful that you and your dad shared in the hunt!

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Awesome story Bow Only. I'm happy to see I inspired you to share that with us and I hope others will follow suit.

 

[Triumph]

Great day Bow Only, especially with family to share your good fortune. Usually my Dad was bailing me out of a bad situation so these moment's make up for all of the times I was acting like a dumb ass. It's a great story and I am thankful for the holiday time I have had this weekend with my family. Out to dig and camp in the woods tomorrow with my nephews. Merry Christmas all!

 

[NCPeaches]

An amazing story and sure is what dreams are made of...thank you for sharing the story and pics.

 

[Tony in SC]

WOW!!! Tony

 

[dts52]

Great story. I'm sure your Dad appreciates that you scattered some of his ashes around the site.
HH
dts

 

[unclemac]

we LOVE these stories....where was this village? what cultural area?

 

[crj1968]

Wow that is awesome. I can't imagine what that would be like... Nice looking display as well.

Do you think these places with multiple finds like this were like bags / pouches of points left behind?

 

[unclemac]

Wow that is awesome. I can't imagine what that would be like... Nice looking display as well.

Do you think these places with multiple finds like this were like bags / pouches of points left behind?

Larson 1951 had a good take on this....his thought was that when an epidemic swept through a village...everything just stopped, frozen in time...a majority of the population died fairly quickly and those few that didn't moved away and never looked back.

 

[Buckleberry]

Killer finds and story, thanks for sharing!

 

[crj1968]

Larson 1951 had a good take on this....his thought was that when an epidemic swept through a village...everything just stopped, frozen in time...a majority of the population died fairly quickly and those few that didn't moved away and never looked back.

That makes sense

 

[unclemac]

if you haven't already go to the start of the North American thread and click on "our friend Steve Larson"

 

[chase2]

wow that is great! thanks

 

[Ohio_Doug]

What an awesome story, thank you for sharing!

 

[Bow Only]

we LOVE these stories....where was this village? what cultural area?

NW Florida

Wow that is awesome. I can't imagine what that would be like... Nice looking display as well.

Do you think these places with multiple finds like this were like bags / pouches of points left behind?

In this particular field, it is my opinion that something like a category 5 hurricane or a rival tribe came in and completely destroyed the village. I was probably on a house or living area when I found so many points together. This site was very unusual in the volume of artifacts that it contained. I have over 200 rims representing 200 different pots, thousands of points, tools, and other related artifacts. This was a prominent trading village between Kolomoki and the coast. It had two mounds, a very large village area, and an unmatched ceramic diversity. I leaned on this site heavily in my studies of the Weeden Island - Ft Walton cultural transition. I greatly differ in opinion from the current state archaeologists.

 

[unclemac]

do tell...how do you differ? a lot of us question specifics in areas we know intimately. it doesnt mean we are right, but we do have a lot of insight. we were the sort of people who questioned "clovis first" before it was much of an idea. we also have some pretty whack ideas and go too far down the rabbit whole from time to time...