Creek Questions

[BobGuy]

I have two questions that I am always thinking about when hunting creeks.. Hopefully someone can shed some light..

1) How long will an artifact stay in one general area in a creek? Does it take hundreds of years for it to be moved down to the next rock bar or could it be moved miles down stream with each flood?

2) how long does an artifact need to be in the creek for it to turn black with algae?

I'm trying to understand how/where/when an artifact made it into the creek. If I find a perfectly clean and undamaged point is it likely that it recently and very locally fell into the creek because the water never really moves it very far and it takes forever for it to become totally creek stained or is it impossible to know because artifacts and rocks in general are moved great distances in short periods of time each time the creek floods...

Id love to put a tracking device on a projectile point sized rock and see how far it goes with each flood...

I appreciate your feedback!

BG

 

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[BobGuy]

Here is an illustration on how sediment is moved by water...

 

[monsterrack]

In my area when we get say 3in of rain the water level in the smaller creeks can rise as much as 4ft. The larger creeks may rise 1ft, so with this much water it is like a washing machine, it turns the bottom up pretty good. for a point to turn black with stain from the creek has a lot of different things going on to make it happen. This is JMO, but if a point gets stuck in a spot that it stay wet but is exposed to air, I think it will turn dark, while the back side stay another color. This is a photo of points from the same creek. Some points may have been in the creek for a while but have been buried under the layers of mud, gravel and so on. I love creek hunting because you never know what you may find artifacts to fossil and who knows what!!!!!!!

 

[Treasure_Hunter]

I hunted streams and creeks for 20 years in mid Missouri, best time to hunt was right after water receded after a heavy rain like 2-6 inches, for me artifacts were everywhere after a heavy rain when I hunted the fields, streams and creeks in Missouri....My best day I found 40 whole complete points walking a stone bottom creek after a heavy rain, lost track of how many broken points I found, there were so many of them.

 

[creekhunter]

Great subject, I guess the coloring also depends on the water quality as well, and the time of year for us, if there are leaves in the creek that will stain a point pretty quick!

 

[BobGuy]

So I guess the answer is - there is no way to know and it just depends!

 

[BobGuy]

Nice points BTW!

 

[rock]

I have found them in mid tumble in the current some in shallow water and most on gravel bars. If you keep finding them on 1 gravel bar it could of once been a camp site that the water is revealing them for you after each rain. It depends on your creek and how much current is in it. Good luck