Mostly successful Paleo hunt

[Twitch]

Went spot hunting (trying to find places to hunt, rather than hunting established places for points) this weekend in an area that is notoriously old. Had my mind made up that I'd find a nice paleo piece. Instead, I drove 8 hours total, paddled 10 hours, fell down twice (not just slipped a little but fully flat backed in the dirt), and more or less got blanked. I found ~15 or so brokes, all early archaic, and a Dalton Adze with a little use wear on it. My buddy on the other hand found 1 point to go with his brokes. It wasn't the Paleo point we were looking for but it was close enough that most people would call it paleo.

Picture quality may be off a little due to them being camera phone pictures. It's a really nice piece. About 2-1/2" and absolutely no damage.

 

[1320]

Spot hunting and flat backing, terms that I'm familiar with! That's a heck of a nice find!

 

[Th3rty7]

Sounds like a rough one man, but looks and sounds like you're into some Dalton and possibly earlier. That's good news. Your buddy found a killer, think it's a Dalton variety?

 

[Twitch]

Th3rty7 - It's definately a Dalton. I've heard them called a couple of different sub-varieties (Nucholls, Greenbriar), but this is thee classic (predominate) Dalton point style for the area found. They can be basally thinned, lightly fluted (as is this example) or have full deep flutes. I have a couple that are nearly identical in form to that one. They are a different form than the Dalton's up here (St Louis). As far as older points, there are both Clovis and Cumberland in the area. Though I've never found either, I've personally seen one Clovis picked up. I've also found one whole and several broke fluted points that I can't type specifically, though I assume they're paleo. The adze is the first I can assign to Dalton culture. I have several other Adze's that were found out of context on mutil-component sites. I'm not aware of any Agate Basin or similar lance points from the area. I assume they occur but have no data to support that. Dalton is the earliest point in the area a guy can reasonably expect to find (1 a year, 1 every 2 years).

I have no shame so I can fall on my butt, get laughed at relentlessly, get skunked, and still have a good time. Verbal abuse among friends can be an important and enjoyable side of rock hunting. Falling in the river, getting stuck in the mud, finding nothing but brokes when the guy six feet to your left has 8 keepers is all part of it. If you can't have fun even when you're losing you shouldn't play the game.

 

[PrimitiveOne]

Awesome point!!

 

[catherine1]

Nice pics. Fantastic find!!! Looks like a hard to see place were it was found!

 

[archer66]

I have no shame so I can fall on my butt, get laughed at relentlessly, get skunked, and still have a good time. Verbal abuse among friends can be an important and enjoyable side of rock hunting. Falling in the river, getting stuck in the mud, finding nothing but brokes when the guy six feet to your left has 8 keepers is all part of it. If you can't have fun even when you're losing you shouldn't play the game.

Great statement right there and you sound just like me. I am especially good at getting outfished by my buddy in the back of the boat...he's casting to water's that I've supposedly already worked from the FRONT of the boat yet he's catching and I'm not.

Really nice point picutured there.....sounds like you had a great weekend to me.

Chris

 

[mad.co.walker]

I have no shame so I can fall on my butt, get laughed at relentlessly, get skunked, and still have a good time. Verbal abuse among friends can be an important and enjoyable side of rock hunting. Falling in the river, getting stuck in the mud, finding nothing but brokes when the guy six feet to your left has 8 keepers is all part of it. If you can't have fun even when you're losing you shouldn't play the game.

hey twitch nice find !!!!!!! dont talk about falling ive looked to the sky many times trying to get up a creek bank. !!!!! wait till you drop down a muddy creek bank and then realize OK NOW HOW AM I GOING TO GET BACK UP THE BANK
ALL YOU CAN DO WHEN FALLING IS WHAT I SAY...... THIS IS GOING TO HURT. !!!!!!!!!!!
Great statement right there and you sound just like me. I am especially good at getting outfished by my buddy in the back of the boat...he's casting to water's that I've supposedly already worked from the FRONT of the boat yet he's catching and I'm not.

Really nice point picutured there.....sounds like you had a great weekend to me.

Chris

 

[Twitch]

Archer, Mad.co,
The two guys I started hunting with 11 years ago and I have a phrase we often use. "This could be the dumbest thing we've ever done..." It usually involved going up or down some bank that clearly is too steep or slick, breaking ice on the water to hunt rocks in the winter, leaping (at least attempting to) a small ditch or creek, numerous unintended trips into the water either from a boat or the bank, making some death march across 2 miles of open muddy field with place to stop, hunting in the hail and lightning. I have an extremely entertaining memory of a hail storm I saw coming about 5 minutes before my buddy did. It involved me sitting in the truck for 5 minutes watching my buddy run as fast as he could through the hail storm trying to get back to the truck. The hail was small enough he was in any real danger but large enough that it stung a little. At one point we had the 8 or 10 stupidest (read: funniest) things we've ever done rock hunting listed somewhere. I can think of at least 2 motors coming off of boats during hunts. I remember a guy trying to back a boat down the ramp by hand. I remember us getting out to hunt a lake and then after a good hour realizing we were on the wrong lake. No I'm not kidding. I recall hunting a water line where person 1 kept picking up logs and moving them and person 2 would pick up a point under the log. Person 1 then picks up another log and person 2 picks up another point. This happened 4 or 5 times before person 1 noticed the trend. Very funny to watch. I had a buddy get stuck mid-thigh in the mud. I went to go help him out and found two 4" turkeytails within 3' of each other. I then told him I couldn't help him out of the mud until I checked for the rest of the cache. Again, I like finding rocks, but I have fun not finding them as well, as long as I'm looking. Any humorous stories out there?


Joe

 

[in.rockhntr]

Great stories there Twitch. I bet you and your buddies would be a blast to hunt with.

 

[tmodel]

Twixt!! i call it scouting.. you Archer and Walker sound like you would be a lot of fun just to get know, hunting with any or all of you would be a real BIG +++!!! i know that you may be getting tired of this question, i think i have ask it of other photos of yours.. your photos as showing up on my pc. set at[100%] as[2 pages] wide and [2pages] tall.. so as i was looking first time i could not even see the crocked stick in front of that dalton,, at the bottom of the [2nd]page for me bottom of photo for you. i found near log what looked like a tear drop shaped blade. then realised and went to [50%] and saw your nice point sticking out of ground glad it was a dalton. would you check photo and see if you can remember seeing what i am talking about and let me know i use these photos to try and keep my eyes and mind sharp till doctor lets me drive again, hard to get driver ever body eather working, in school and dating,or to young or like my wife to sick to even drive where she wants or needs to go!! o yes only one in family that is the least bit interested in indian artifacts,, she is in school dating and helping her mother who is fighting M.S... thank you Twitch for putting up with me cabin fever... Terry