by Roy Whaley, Park Hills, Missouri
Volume 46, Number 4, OCTOBER 1999 Central States Archaeological Journal
It was a warm morning when I stepped out on the porch and decided to go to one of my favorite rock hunting fields. St. Genevieve County, several miles from my home. When I arrived, the owner, Dick, was already on his tractor discing the field. Though he was quite a distance away, he spotted me and drove on over to where I was. After chatting a bit, he mentioned he needed to get back to work, and said I should go over and look by the apple tree at the end of the field. He said that he had uncovered some dark colored rocks there.
Upon arriving at the apple tree I was astounded by what I saw. These were not just ordinary dark colored rocks. I was looking at a cache of large hardstone celts! Thinking I would be just hunting for arrowheads, I did not have any digging tools with me. But with the excitement of the moment and the amazing artifacts lying in front of me, I was determined to extract them all from the soil. I went immediately to work, digging with just my hands and a small stick.
More and more celts kept coming as I dug, and eventually I had them all out of their hiding place. There were 16 of them (Fig. 1)! I wrapped half of them in the empty feed sack I was wearing and headed back to my car. I am returning for the rest. I could not believe my luck in this field.
A few years later I noticed that the electric company had erected a new electric pole. My curiosity got the best of me, and I walked over to the small dirt pile left by their digging. To my surprise, there were two nicely made Cahokia style discoidals, just lying there. I picked them both up with one hand.
The field has continued to give up more artifacts over the years. I personally have found six other whole celts. My boys and grandsons have also found numerous artifacts there, including many more celts and arrowheads.
Five ever sit in my house, you might notice the rock garden in my yard. There are at least 300 broken celts there, the majority of them from this field. This has truly been my “field of dreams.”
At top: Figure 1. Fourteen of the 16 celts recovered by the author.