A Collector Remembers The First

A collector remembers their first find. These are ours.





Our father 's 1st arrowhead was actually found by our grandfather while preparing the ground for grass seed in the backyard. He is a retired history teacher, avid book collector and local historian. His keen interests were with the Native American and the Wild West, so finding an arrowhead in the backyard was a perfect opportunity to teach the life ways of the American Indian to his 5 year old son. They crouched down and held the arrowhead fresh from the dirt as my grandfather explained that this was a tool made for hunting and surviving by an Indian. Maybe the Indian was hunting with his son when it was shot and lost. This moment touched my father in such a way, that it has literally affected every day of his life (and ours) ever since.

The point was broken twice and mended back together. It was dropped by my father's classmates when he took it to school for show and tell. The story goes: the point went missing in class. The teacher lined each of the students into a single file line and were told to hold out their hands. One boy, who had his hands behind his back, had tossed the arrowhead onto the paved ground before holding out his hands. My father watched as it fell to the ground and broke in half.

Snookill Stemmed Point (1600 BC)

I found my first arrowhead sticking out of a large hump of plowed soil on a soaked, Spring morning in 1984. I was 5 years old. My dad taught me my simply saying, "look for flakes of black chips (he showed my a few samples). They will be smoothed from being chipped, and you won't be able to break it...that's why Indians used it for their tools."

You know the "feel" of a chilly, but humid day Spring morning after a rain? Those were the conditions that morning. I think it was in the morning. The humps of dirt were huge to me. They did plow deeper in those days...not anymore. I had to kick my legs frequently to shake the hunks that caked up on my boots. The Earth smelled wonderful, the rain dripped off the trees as if the ground was getting a 2nd rain. Birds spoke through the treetops and the water flowed down the Bushkill with authority. I learned to love nature that day.

Genesee type (2800 BC)

Julian found his 1st arrowhead when he was 5 years old. His point seems to have been made somewhere else and brought here, but what's more special about it is that the moment he found it changed his life forever. It was right when you get into the field. There was always cement dirt and dust there because a local trucking company would wash the trucks off on the flat above the field and the cement dirt would wash down into the field. It was a wonderful example of bank erosion, huge gullies would form into the field and wash up deeply buried artifacts. Julian found this arrowhead there...it is a special place.

Unknown corner notched type. The material it is made of is foreign to our area. Dad found a Dovetail Point also in this field, so we believe these items were traded for.

A Colonial History and Artifacts of Christian Springs - An Early Moravian Community

The old milk House is the only remaining original structure left from the ca. 1750's Moravian settlement that was Christian Springs, the first vocational school established in Northampton County, Pennsylvania.

    
     The small Moravian Settlement known as Christian's Springs, encompasing 1,500 acres of land with "unsurpassed fertility," was located approximately a half mile southwest of the nazareth settlement. This small cluster of buildings has suffered from the ravages of time over the past 250 years and has derteriorated beyond recognition. A small milk House and an ancient looking springhouse are all that remain of this once flourishing community. The date accepted as the founding of Christian's Spring is Dec. 17, 1749. First known as Gnadenhohe, the settlement's name changed in 1752, following the death of Christian Renatus von Zinzendorf, the son of Count von Zinzendorf. It would grow into a self sustaining community that conducted their own industries, producing all of their living necessities, and even sending commodities to market. At its peak there were 16 buildings in the little settlement; the cellar of the family house had a vaulted ceiling that was a model of the finest masonry work, its groined arches being noted as the first in the new world.

The settlement included a gristmill, sawmill, tannery, brewery, shoemaker' shop, gunsmith, blacksmith shop, a brick and tile works, and a bakery. Quite a few settlers sought refuge at the settlement during the indian massacres and uprisings of the early 1760's. Many extremely important people spent time at the springs as well...among them; The Rev. David Zeisberger (Missionary to the Indians), It was here also that the heart of young John Heckewelder was touched through Zeisberger's influence (He also to become one of the most important missionary's and interpretors to the Indians), many officers and statesmen of the Revolutionary period, including General Woodford, Col. Banister, Col. Elliot, a company of Light Horse Cavalry guarding prisoners of war, and even General Horatio Gates spent time here while on his way North to Ticonderoga. The community dissolved in the year 1796 and was broken up into a number of smaller farms and occupied by married couples.

The story of Christian's Spring did not end there, the following year (1797) there would be another visitor to the area, a refugee from the French guillotine, Duke de la Rochefoucault Liancourt. The families who worked the land surrounding the Spring continued to live a quiet and peaceful existence for decades to come. This experiment in communal living served its purpose well. It got many young men started in the new world. It trained dozens of boys in vocations that they then used for a lifetime. And who can measure the success of John Heckewelder, renowned in Ohio and memorialized in historic Bethlehem.

As for Christian Spring today, there is little left of the colonial period. Besides the "hotel," built in 1860, there is a small side building, the only original building - the milk house, an ancient looking springhouse in disrepair, and a large private residence (dating back to around (1800). Just to the south of the settlment is a massive quarry operated by the Lone Star Cement Company; the company also holds ownership to some of the sacred land I have been describing. That little grove across these fields and beyond the highway, shelters the only one of the old Christian's Spring Houses left, the others have all fallen before the so-called march of progress. A clump of willows and an old Linden tree still guard the old stone house, changed beyond recognition, except to him who has the inner vision.

(Some of the above information taken from "The Upper Places" - Nazareth, Gnadenthal, and Christian's Spring by Elizabeth Myers Published in 1929 and "Christian Spring - Noble Experiment in Communal Living and First Vocational School in Northampton County" by Edwin Sawyer published in 1988)

We were fortunate enough to attain permission to metal detect on the property of a private residence located next to the old Milk House - the only remaining original structure of the settlement. Many hours were spent on this sacred soil searching for the links of the past hidden just beneath our feet. There is something certainly special to walk the land and smell the earth where truly great deeds occured and history was indeed made. We take nothing for granted and understand just how lucky we are to be able to take part in such neat adventures. A few times a year we still go back to the Spring in search of historical treasures, yet even if nothing of note is found, it is worth it to simply lay on the grass next to the ancient springhouse, and contemplate what life was like 250 years ago, during the birth of our great nation. We were able to recover quite a few noteworthy items from this Moravian community, including - hand wrought nails, numerous shards of red-ware pottery, stoneware, many colonial buttons, buckles, colonial musketballs, brass trigger from a flintlock musket, pieces of jewelry, clay pipe fragments, and some very nice coins.

Image below is of a Large Cent lying in-situ over the hole it was just dug.

Display of artifacts consisting entirely of pieces we recovered in the area of what was the Christian's Spring settlement.  A neat mix of different types of artifacts.

Colonial era musketballs recovered at the site...possibly fired from some of the legendary long rifles made by their gunsmiths, who were expert artisans and craftsman....most notably gunsmith Christian Oerter.  In the center is a beautiful 1809 Spanish 8 reale coin.  Almost had a heart attack when this puppy came out of the ground.  Surrounding the musketballs are numerous large cents with dates varying from 1795 to 1829.

Of note in this image is the large hand-wrought iron spike...cleaned up and preserved nicely.  Beautiful cufflink with fancy gold gilt rope borders...very neat piece.

Of note are 2 early large cents, and a few hand cut nails.  In the center is a very rare item.  It is what i believe to me a counterfeit large cent.  It is made out of lead and is the same size and thickness of a large cent....You can even see the outline of bust and some of the lettering on the back.  Very unique.  Below that is an 1857 flying eagle cent in very good condition.

1828 Large cent in very good condition.

Ironically we recovered 2 coins that were from Portugal.  Below is an 1891 Portugese coin.

Very neat trigger mechanism to an early flintlock musket. Both are in nice condition, and another Portugese coin.

Same two coins previously pictured, along with an 1827 Large cent...some ground action but is in beautiful condition and very bold.

Edge of a 1795 large cent recovered at the site....note the lettered edge "One Hundred for a Dollar,"...very cool.  These early date large cents are very thick coins.

The Museum

Welcome to the Cloud Nine Indian Museum

Our museum began in 1992 when our basement was converted into a display of our artifacts and collections. It has since grown and expanded to include more rooms and more stuff. Most of it's contents have been found by the authors, but some pieces have been graciously donated.

Our collection was found predominantly in Northampton County, PA and ranges from Paleo to European contact artifacts, ca.1740's. Our father started collecting in 1955 and would fieldwalk deep plowed fields adjacent to a water sources. His efforts were rewarded. Over the years his collection amassed and today we are able to display arrowheads, knives and scrapers, hammerstones, drills, celts, axes, pestles and morters, bola stones, pottery, beads, colonial relics, and a few other "field finds." You could be surprised what you could find by "just looking down." 

 Julian and I saw a gradual shift from deep, rich plows, to the current common practice of no-till farming. When we were little, we would stumble over a deep plow scar in the mud after a soaking rain. The Earth smelled good on those mornings and days. If we were lucky, we would spot a large spear sticking out of a hump of soil. If we did, we would call each other over and test the dirt where the buried 1/2 of the spear was. Using a stick, poke the dirt of the buried spear. If the point moved, it might be whole. It moved! Wow...a quartzite spearpoint. We are the first people to touch this tool since the man who dropped it...I'll never forget those days.

It was hard for Julian and I to see the land that we had these intimate experiences with developed rapidly in the 1990's. Honestly, it's one of the most sensitive things in my life. It's hard to have a connection with something...like natural soils, trees and streams, only to have them replaced with asphalt, houses, cars and people..and sometimes gates! We understand that death is a part of life, and we feel blessed that we were able to recover and preserve this piece of local history. One winter, we all sat down and mapped each site into a home-made site catalogue. It's rough (with plans to update it sometime), but I'm glad we did that.

Our collection is not only sentimental, it is a nice representation of local pre-history.  Our area was rich with spring-fed streams which drain into the Bushkill Creek, and then into the Delaware River in Easton, PA. These were seasonal hunting grounds for bands that would follow the water into our lands and retrieve valuable meat and furs for their families. We find their flaking areas, camp sites and lost items (strays) in plowed fields after a rain. Some of these seasonal encampments must have been used for many years, maybe even generations, since so many stone artifacts have been recovered. We believe we can identify items like scrapers, arrowheads and knives that were made by the same individual.

We had only about 4, or 5 sites that we believe were larger camp sites. There we found things like mortars, pestles, larger cutting tools, pottery, a gouge, axes and beads. One one of those sites we found contact period artifacts believed to be trade items that were traded to an existing native american camp in the area. Most of these sites have been developed, since land that was once lived on is still the most desireable today.

The curator is a very artistic person. Among his many creative ideas, is a way to display the artifacts in an attractive manner. Below are a few examples of frames that he has put together. I'll probably write a whole blog post about the display of the artifacts, so Coming Soon: Artifact Display. Question: Do you have to have beautiful artifacts to make attractive displays?


Aside from the attractive display of arrowheads, a nice way to more effectively present a tool is on a shaft, or spear, like it would have been before those rotted away. We have nice examples of shafted scrapers, spears, arrows, a bow drill and a pump drill to show how the stone implements were fastened and used. If it's nice out we like to demonstrate flint knapping or atl~atl throwing. We like to think that our museum's displays and demostrations effectively represent the prehistoric lifeways of the people who walked this same land in Eastern PA, that we walk and drive on today.

  

We hope that readers of this blog will enjoy our stories, collections and ideas.