by Rodney Farr, Canton, Missouri
January 2016 Central States Archaeological Journal
In the fall of the year I used to run a small trap line. No matter what the weather, traps need to be checked every day. On Christmas Day, 1985, I went to check my traps early in the morning so I could be home for our annual family dinner. The weather was warm for December and the ground was muddy, so I had to park my car a long way from my traps.
On the way back to my car, I took a short cut across a farm field where I normally hunt for arrowheads. As I stepped across a little washout area in the field I looked down and saw this beautiful point lying fully exposed on the ground. It was a Folsom (Fig. 1).
The Folsom is a small to medium size, very thin, high quality fluted point with well contracted pointed auricles and a concave base. The fluting usually extends the entire length of each face. The blade flaking is extremely fine and the hafting area is ground. This is a very rare type, even in the area of highest incidence. They have been found in association with extinct bison remains 9000 B.C. to 8000 B.C.
The first of October 2015, I was at a farm auction in northern Lewis County, Missouri. I purchased a box that contained thirty Central States Archaeological Journals from 1956 to 1964. I’ve been a member of GSLAS for years and I have been buying up the old journals because they are a great source of information.
On the back cover “table of contents” of the first one I opened, I noticed “Fluted Points” by Paul V. Sellers of Lewistown, Missouri. Paul’s article talked of fluted points found along the Mississippi River near LaGrange and up to Canton.
A few years ago Dr. Julie Morrow from Arkansas State University met me in Hannibal and recorded my point in the “Paleo Point Data Base” for the Missouri Archaeological Society.
Measurements of the point:
Total length: 47.8 mm
Flute length side A: 37.2 mm
Flute length side B: 38.0 mm
Max thickness: 3.3 mm
Max inter-flute thickness: 2.7 mm
I’m not sure which is more amazing to me; that this point survived for thousands of years or that because of a little mud, I had the best Christmas ever.
References
Overstreet, Robert
2001 The Overstreet Indian Arrowheads Identification and Price Guide, 7th Edition
Sellers, Paul V.
1956 Fluted Points, Central States Archaeological Journal Vol. 2, No. 3, Pages 112–113