Searching Creeks Out West - Good Method or Nott??

[GoExplore]

This question is mainly for members who surface hunt out west...I have decent success finding points in the hills next to creeks, but I often wonder if I should look in the creeks when the water levels are low. I see several posts from members out east and in the mid-west finding goodies in creeks, but never heard if this was a successful method out west. Any thoughts are appreciated.

 

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[jamey]

i think everything ends up in the water everywhere

 

[uniface]

Why not try it ?

 

[sandchip]

If your creeks meander over time, there's a good chance of finding something in 'em.

 

[Relicgrubber]

If there is gravel mixed with the mud and sand I would grub the creek.

 

[southfork]

If your in the gold belt along the mother lode in California every creek has been mined chances are slim .

 

[welsbury]

A lot of creeks are private,water is precious,the rest is on public(government) land

 

[joshuaream]

It depends where you are.

Southfork and Welsbury each make a great point about their areas.

In the area of the Midwest that I am from (northern Indiana) there aren't any creeks that are worth hunting. You have big, slow muddy rivers, or you have small slow muddy rivers. No meandering, gravel beds, or deep erosion, just dump truck quantities of silt covering everything. Aside from construction debris and modern riprap (loose rocks dumped there to control bank erosion) you won't find many rocks in the rivers. A 150 miles south and it's great.

In your area? It depends, the West is bigger than the East, so you'll likely have the range from great to nothing. Some areas of Washington & Oregon are among the best river hunting that has ever existed, some areas would land you in jail/fined out the wazoo, and many areas just don't have the right conditions to make creek hunting productive.

 

[ToddsPoint]

Two young fellas around here hunt creeks. Rough hunting, overgrown and only occasional gravel bars. None the less, they find points and nice ones. One of them told me they find a point every 5 or 6 mi. Wow! Too much walking for me. Gary

 

[old digger]

Finding artifacts in streams and rivers here in Montana can be difficult. Seasonal creeks usually do not get a lot erosion due to the larger stones and grass roots that keep the stream bed in tact. I know of at least one horseshoe bend in a creek in Northeastern Montana where due to the accumulation of river rock and the slowing down of the water, that in the winter when the water froze the Indians would chase the buffalo onto the ice and bludgeon them for food. In this one spot my relatives found quite a number of hammer stones.

 

[Relicgrubber]

I'm glad I live in TEXAS!

 

[RogueHounder]

By all means, yes!

The short answer: Yes!

The long answer: I grew up rockhounding exclusively on gravel bars along a little creek in Southern Oregon. For years I've picked up jaspers, agates, quartz, petrified wood, etc., rather oblivious to the possibility of finding remnants of Rogue Indian culture. I knew we had a few pieces lying around that looked like mortar and pestle, and my brother reportedly found a "tomahawk head" years before, but I never saw anything remarkable beyond my fancy for color and sparkles. I finally got some hip waders a couple years ago and hopped out into shallow, brilliantly clear and cold water in February (always scummy from algae blooms in the Spring) and found more of my usual fare in one day than I'd gathered in the preceding 2 decades. What I only began to notice then, and now recognize throughout my collection are many, many worked pieces, unmistakable in comparison to whole or naturally broken blobs of the same mineral composition. They're often more like "blanks" for probable spear points, cutting tools, or arrow heads, but some have definitely been brought down to final form. And I know, pics or it didn't happen:

Happy Hunting!