Arrowheads

sinselady: Any people out there who like hunting arrowheads or other rocks and or gem stones? What is your favorite or most valuable find and where (generally) did you find it?
I hunt in ne Colorado. I have found a few beautiful perfect heads but mostly broken things and never anything like a spear point . A lot of scrapers and what look like tools. I like it when I find petrified wood too.

Ariadnetta: Sinse! Haha, I never knew you were into this. I've collected fossils and nice rock samples aplenty (mostly ammonites and quartzes), arrowheads no so much - but I do have a metal detector for one day finding my roman coin hoard - so far finds have been limited to broken pottery and the odd coin.

deacon7771: What a coincidence... A few days ago, I was driving back home from Las Vegas, and I stopped at an isolated place White Hills, Arizona, at a convenience store that was a tourist trap. They sold all sorts of souvenirs and such, and ARROHEADS!! Fake arrowheads I suppose, made recently in some manufacturing method, not real arrowheads made long ago, but the fakes look very real... Now for an evil old man like me, they are simply irresistible, I bought lots of them, the clerk must have thought I was some sort of nut (actually I guess I AM). Now, I have a bunch of cheap, fake arrowheads, that I can place just about anywhere I want some poor fool to start digging and poking around, sort of like "salting the mine" back in the old days when some con artists would put high grade ore samples around some worthless property so they could sell the mining claim to someone for a much higher price.

sinselady: If you could recognize them as fake most dedicated arrowhead hunters will be able to also I think. I know people who can make them by knapping the way the Indians did - can't really call them fake, but they aren't old, so I don't know what a person would classify them as. What do you think?

deacon7771: I don't really think the ones I bought at the roadside store are "fake" as they seem to be made out of some stone, I am not a geologist so I can't really say what stone, it did not appear to be flint to me but I don't know. I am not really into hoaxing that much, but then again maybe I will use them someday to make someone's day. The value of these novelty arrowheads is not really that much, but if some child "finds" one, especially if they find it right after you have told them some story about the ancient tribes who lived here... well it would make their day, and seeing them find it would make my day. Of course, when the children grow up and find out they had been hoaxed...

sinselady: I see your point, it would be fun to make a child's day. I guess finding out later they weren't made by real Indians would be like finding out Santa isn't real either.

deacon7771: I was thinking about what sort of tale to tell... something like King Arthur's "Excalibre" sword, that "can only be pulled out of the stone by a man with a true heart" only tell the story that some arrow heads were hidden and can only be seen by children who are well behaved... then when and if the kids actually ARE well behaved, go put some of the fake arrow heads out in the back yard and send them on something like an Easter Egg hunt.

Fog Swept Glade: In the state of Tennessee it‘s against the law to pursue such hunts. I will tell you that in a cave near Byrdstown Tennessee that has been used for both fun & gardening there were so many arrowheads you could just reach down & grab them. Then, with time, a large overhanging rock descended onto the ancestral tools of the Mississippian peoples of that area.

deacon7771: I am sorry FogSwept, I don't quite get your point.... no pun intended. "A large overhanging rock?" So, a rock closed the mouth of the cave? Or crushed some old tools? I don't understand.

On the other hand, your post has caused me to come up with all sorts of new devious ideas.... I could leave HUNDREDS of my replica arrowheads around somewhere... and make sure the area was safely under surveillance of the local law authorities... then some poor unsuspecting fellow walks by and sees the arrowheads.... picks one up and gets beset upon by the "cultural antiquities police SWAT team" and end up paying several thousand dollars in fines.... I know I cannot be the first evil minded person to think of that. I wonder how many thousands of dollars of fines some corrupt park ranger can run up from running a scam like that.

Fog Swept Glade: It‘s impossible to collect the heirlooms without moving a large boulder from a room.

Fog Swept Glade: Maybe it can be crushed if it hasn‘t been already.

Fog Swept Glade: I like arrowheads enough to leave them alone, I‘m happy to destroy living things ruining my area from now on, free of charge.

deacon7771: I am happy NOT to destroy or harm living things in my area. Since I don't have any kids running around anymore, I let the rattlesnakes in my yard and I never catch or kill them, a few months ago, a gila monster came up on my patio, I just left it completely alone. You know, on the "black market" of rare and endangered animals, a gila monster is worth at least $1,500, and here I have a real one, from the desert, just coming on up to my patio and I don't pay a cent for the pleasure. A month ago, a large western diamond back rattlesnake was at my back door when I came home from work, coiled up under the ramp to my back door, again, I left it completely alone. The rattlesnake was probably hunting for mice or rats, and so much the better to just leave him to his own, they are NOT dangerous unless you mess with them. Other people I know, go out of their way to kill snakes and such, but for me, I see they are completely harmless unless you mess with them, it is the "cute" and "adorable" animals that make my life miserable, the ground squirrels that will chew through my car's electrical wiring, the deer that make gardening impossible here, those "cute" and "adorable" animals are the REAL varmints that I do sometimes kill.

sinselady: I don't harm the snakes living around me or any of the other wildlife here. I am not happy to destroy things. I treat the arrowheads with the deference they deserve. I do have a problem with all the target shooters ruining the Pawnee National Grasslands with their lead bullets, paper targets, clay pigeons and trash!!

Scarcastic: I found a very old projectile point a few years ago in Maryland, I believe it's a Clagett point. I wish I knew more about who might have made it etc. I do have a picture of it.
scarcastic's Picture

deacon7771: Hey Scarcastic, I just took a look at the pic of your projectile point, and WOW! That is a real thing, not like the fake arrowheads I have. Looks like you have a real authentic relic there.

sinselady: I looked too scartastic, its a very nice point!! I cant help you with the type or who made it though. I thinks its probably very very old. Nice fin
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Fog Swept Glade: If it was crushed, I know who did it.