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.