Oklahoma has a small subculture of diverse people who share an interesting and obscure pastime. They hunt, collect, and study ancient indian stone artifacts. Oklahoma is (or was at one time) full of these artifacts if you know where to look.
It’s really no secret how to find stone artifacts, or arrowheads as most Oklahoman’s refer to them. They're deep in wheat and cotton and peanut fields, locked for eternity now that modern no-till or low-till methods have mostly replaced moldboarding which was effective in turning over the deep soils… and artifacts.
Finding evidence of “arrowhead” manufacture and even finding whole and broken artifacts is as simple as looking in creeks and fields that contain rock and gravel. Typically, the more gravel, the greater likelihood of finding artifacts. You can talk with most farmers and they'll tell you about what was found on their property or down the road at their neighbors' place.
Another place that people find artifacts is in and around the many lakes we have in Oklahoma. These lakes were often popular habitat for ancient Americans. The natural rivers that existed prior to dam construction were a source of water, food and shelter for stone knappers.
A friend of mine told me that one of our local lakes was being drained and it would be prime hunting as the receding water further eroded the banks and exposed lake bed that had for decades been underwater. We made plans for a July weekend trip to see if we could find anything.
This lake is like any other in that it has coves as well as points of land that jut out into the open and deeper areas of the lake. The coves tend to be calm while the points receive more wind and wave action. As the water was being drained from this lake, we noticed periodic rains and strong winds were heavily eroding the banks and revealing many rocks. There was real promise for a summer of good hunting.
On our drive to the lake one warm summer Saturday, my friend told me a story about one of the lake’s first rangers, a fellow named Willard. Willard was charged with maintaining and monitoring the water and shores of the lake, among other duties. He would spend much of his time walking the sandy shores.
A new lake has a dramatic impact on the land that surrounds it. This particular lake has a very sandy shoreline. The wave action and high winds that frequent this part of the state eroded the banks a great deal during the initial years. Several feet of sand and soil were eroded into the lake bottom revealing the rocks that lay beneath.
During his tours of the lake, Willard discovered several points of land along the shore that had many artifacts on them; and on some days he would pick up 25 to 50 whole and broken artifacts. He would often have to make a trip back to his truck due to the weight of all the rock he was gathering. With this story in mind, I was very excited to revisit these exposed shores so many years after his incredible success.
We started our day at the most remote parking area on the lake - point 10. It was no more than a cul-de-sac of asphalt with no buildings and just a few dirt paths down to the waters edge. The waters edge was now 75 yards further out into the lake and there were tens of acres of sandy lake bottom to explore. We packed our water and snacks and plastic backs for storing any artifacts we might find and were off.
It was a windy and warm morning with the sun just above the trees. The day was going to be hot and we would be on the lake for 6-8 hours, so we drank as much water as we could before heading down the beach. We carried three liters of water each plus several sandwiches and energy bars.
Point 10 proved to be very productive with debitage scattered everywhere. As with whittling wood, the process of lithic (or rock) reduction results in flakes of material that are the byproduct of stone tool production. Unlike wood chips however, stone chips last a long time and indicate that stone tool makers were present at some point in the past. We found handfuls of these stone flakes.
Calf Creek spear point (broken)
We worked our way around the coves and points all the while hoping to reach the point on the lake that is, at normal water level, an island. It was the most prominent point on the lake now that the water was very low. The island, or Point 16, is on the edge of an extremely steep drop off; it would have been an excellent observation point thousands of years ago before the water filled the valley below. We were going to look around that point to see if any artifacts had been lying underwater waiting for our visit. Surely these ancient Oklahoma natives would find this point as compelling as we did.
We continued our long hot march until we had reached the 400 foot isthmus that now led out to point 16 (a distant green patch visible in the accompanying picture). Point 16 did have several small and broken artifacts but it was not rich with the material we had hoped. So, we continued around the corner towards point 17, but found little more. With most of our drinking water gone and realizing we still had to walk back to our vehicle, we headed back along the waters edge.
Point 15 was a long walk, and by point 14 we were tired, thirsty and sunburned. We needed to rest and rehydrate but it was another 45 minutes of hiking back to the vehicle. I remembered a stretch of one of the points that we had skipped on the way out to 16 and suggested that we search it on the way back.
It was a windblown high bank but we were lucky that we had decided to spend the extra few minutes looking over this 100 yard stretch because immediately we found a whole point laying right out in the open. We suddenly felt energized by the find.
As I was kneeling down to view the small spearpoint, my friend spotted another point where he was searching and not 2 feet away from my first I spotted second and third. Soon we were picking up artifacts left and right and our dehydrated bodies were pumping adrenaline.
Twenty minutes and seven spear points later we were satisfied and not thinking about the heat. It had turned into a great day and for a brief time we felt full of energy with no ill-effects of the long days march. Talking and walking back to the parking lot we were full of chatter and excitement of our special day of artifact hunting. We had found treasure.
A few months later my friend mentioned he had visited with Willard and they had talked about our long days hunt to Point 16 and the artifacts we had found. He was genuinely excited to hear our story and look at the artifacts. Hearing the story reminded Willard of the excitement he had experienced so many years ago.
Artifacts just aren’t as plentiful as they once were in Oklahoma, but any find is special and Willard’s response was affirmation that any day can result in a special experience.
We visited this lake several times that year, finding a few points each time. The repairs to the lake were completed and the lake began to fill with water covering our hunting grounds. I'm sure the lake will need repairs in the distant future, and I hope to take my grandchildren to hunt for more artifacts. Until then, I will look for more places to discover these relics from Oklahoma’s pre-history.