A kid and arrow heads.

[RED]

It was 1955 and I was 11 years old. We moved into a rental house in Webb City, AR. Playing in the yard I noticed something sticking out of the ground. It was a perfect 4" flint spear head. I started looking for others. It was a gold mine! I found dozens of arrow heads, a perfect 4X8" flint, axe head!

There was a antique dealer just east of Ozark on Hwy. 64 that bought things like that. I traded all I had for a Schwin Bicycle. A friend of mine tells me the treasures I traded for a $70 bicycle would be worth thousands today.

I have been looking for that piece of land with no joy.

[Allen]

But you can't put a price on the enjoyment you had with that bike.

Everything is worth more now especially the land those arrow heads were on.

[Major Tom]

With permission from local farmers, I like to walk freshly plowed fields looking for arrowheads, etc. I have found many including, like Red's, a 4 inch spear point. Not just any old field will do. A field close to a water supply and especially close to where there is flint. My area has all that and is well known to be a place where Indians had camped.

[Allen]

We use to find arrow heads down here too near the gulf coast. We have no flint and no rocks of any sort except soft sandstone if you dig deep enough to find it.

Think how hard it was for the Indians to get the flint or other hard rock, how long it took to make the arrow heads, and how long they must have looked for the arrows and arrow heads themselves after shooting them. A lost arrow was probably a big deal.

I assume Indians down this way bartered for them.

[M1Tommy]

One of my grandpa's hay fields was next to a creek that went to the Ouachita River, right at what is now called Hot Springs, AR. It was a much used path to the hot springs area for the springs, and a lot of trading. When he plowed the field about every 2-3 years, dad and I would pick up arrowheads and spear points by the shoe box full. I cannot even guess how many I sot off into the air on my own homemade arrows! I still have a few, not many really.
In another of his fields, about a half mile from the creek, there were (still are if one knows where to look) also some odd mounds, with regularly spaced depressions around each. I figured those to be burials, but I was always leery of digging into them.
Tommy

[Allen]

The mounds I've seen are circular or rectangular and flat on the top.

We had quite a few down here at one time. I suspect many were leveled off for housing. There's a town called Moundville near Tuscaloosa, AL (another Indian name) where there are several. I've even seen one on Dauphin Island, South of Mobile.

I would assume digging into one would be illegal unless you had a license.

[M1Tommy]

The mounds I've seen are circular or rectangular and flat on the top...................

Yes, these were/are all fairly circular, about 40-60 ft across at the base, rising about 3-4 feet with a flat top, each having depressions around the sloped sides, from 2-6 if I recollect correctly.

.........I would assume digging into one would be illegal unless you had a license.

As a lad, I was told they were burials. I know that grandpa drove his tractor over then and dept the grass clipped to about 6" or a foot for grazing (Angus). I was never tempted to dig into them and gave them a wide berth when I walked to/from the pond for fishing!
Tommy

[Johnny P]

The bow and arrow was a fairly recent tool of the North American Indian as their occupation goes. It dates to something like 1000 to 1500 years back. Most of what we always called arrowheads were actually large dart points for the atlatl which was a stick with a curve at the end for hoding the atlatl dart which might be up to six feet long. The atlatl multiplied the throwing force of the dart.

The best of what I found years ago walking plowed fields, and some my dad found as a boy on their farm. Some are knives, punches, drills, ax, celt. The two arrows are modern made with feathers tied on rather than glued.

[Allen]

Very nice.

Somewhere at my mothers house is a flint arrow head. The "wings" at the base are angled in opposite directions to make it spiral when being shot, just like a bullet leaving a rifled barrel.

[Roadkingtrax]

The bow and arrow was a fairly recent tool of the North American Indian as their occupation goes. It dates to something like 1000 to 1500 years back. Most of what we always called arrowheads were actually large dart points for the atlatl which was a stick with a curve at the end for hoding the atlatl dart which might be up to six feet long. The atlatl multiplied the throwing force of the dart.

The best of what I found years ago walking plowed fields, and some my dad found as a boy on their farm. Some are knives, punches, drills, ax, celt. The two arrows are modern made with feathers tied on rather than glued.

That is very neat.