Renewal

After the long winter we had, it has been refreshing to check off the boxes of another spring season. The first striped bass of the year is always a notable fish. For me, this came in mid-April along a sandy beach, at high tide, before getting chased off the water by lightning. The fish ate a yellow wooden darter made by my friend Jim. He was next to me when I caught the striper, which was pretty damn cool.

Spring is also a favorite time to look for Native American artifacts. When I spent a day off arrowhead hunting in April, it was a bit early as the farm fields I visited had not been plowed yet. Fortunately, I was still able to find a small-stemmed projectile point made of quartz. It was evident that this point had been heavily reworked over time; a good reminder of how prudent these ancient tool-makers were. 

Another day this spring was spent in my kayak, on the same body of water that I was ice fishing just weeks before. A stiff wind made things challenging, but I found some lee behind land and worked my tail off for a 22-inch brown trout. I hooked another one that felt larger, but it came unbuttoned during the fight. It was the first time with my new electronics in the kayak—a gamechanger from what I was using previously, yet I still need to spend more time dialing it in just right. 

Heartbreaker

Finding a broken artifact is much more common than coming across a full, intact piece these days. As my uncle has told me more than once, "there are only crumbs left." Of course there are some great stone tools left to be found, but compared to what has been picked up or built upon already, he has a point. This morning was no different, except that I was very surprised when I saw these two broken pieces laying right next to each other. Was this point broken then discarded by the native who made it?  Or was it lost on a hunt and broken sometime in the hundreds or thousands of years since? I'll never know but it's pretty cool to think about. It was a very cool way to start my day and now it goes into the shadow-box table it goes with the other crumbs.

Jackpot!

I will let the photos do the talking in this post. Needless to say, I am on cloud nine right now after finding the most impressive Native American artifact in my collection. Jackpot indeed!

In Situ

During a walk over the weekend, I was fortunate to stumble on a small quartz point along the water's edge. It's not the prettiest of ancient tools, but I'll take it! Artifact collectors often snap photographs of their finds as they found them. There is a Latin phrase for this, in situ, which literally translates to "in position." Usually I'm so pumped when I see anything that resembles an artifact, that I pick it up before I can take a picture of it on the ground. I saw this triangle as I was walking back to my vehicle for the day, so needless to say it made me stick around a while longer. Thankfully this spring has been to good to me in terms of finding artifacts--let's hope the lucky streak continues!

Good Looking

In heavily developed southern Connecticut, it is very difficult locating spots that still consistently yield Native American artifacts. Many of the farm fields that gave up museum-worthy stone tools to our predecessors are now sub-divisions or shopping malls. And most of the places that we do have left, have been picked over for centuries. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of stuff still out there and, occasionally, we do stumble upon something nice. My friend Derrick and I have been doing much more looking than fishing this spring and it is starting to pay off. I found this intact quartz beauty last week. It was not easy to spot being caked in mud and blending in very well with the other rocks. It is a great feeling when you find a full piece after picking up so many crumbs and it is a great incentive to keep on looking.   

  

A Good Find

A friend and I hunted a corn field today. We weren't after deer or upland birds, we were surface hunting for Native American artifacts. This particular spot abuts a large river and is full of evidence of early man. More than likely there was a large village at this site on and off for thousands of years. The field has been picked over by collectors for decades, but after each big rain or spring till we are presented with a new look. On this trip we some flakes of quartz and flint that were refuse from when the American indians produced projectile points. We also found some clam shells, a good sign when you're more than 30 miles from the coast. The best find of the day, however, came right before the sun sank behind the tree line, as I picked up a small broken point; a big addition to my growing collection. It's what I would call a "heart-breaker;" not a full point, but complete enough to know how much skill was needed to make it. Needless to say, we'll be going back to this site again soon. 

Point Well Taken

I stumbled upon an amazing find while walking the shoreline with my better half today. My heart nearly skipped a beat as I picked up a fully intact Native American projectile point. It's just the fifth full point in my modest collection, but definitely the most rewarding because of where it was found--right in my hometown on Long Island Sound. Below is a photo of the artifact worn down by the elements. I believe the typology is known as "Bare Island" and the tool was most likely last touched by human hands a couple thousand years ago. Pretty cool to think about.