by Paul Herrick, Mackinaw, Illinois
Volume 70, Number 4, October 2022 Central States Archaeological Journal
This is a tale about an artifact that I found many years ago along the Illinois River Valley. Back in the 1970s and 80s, my older brother, Steve, worked construction for a company. On some Sundays and holidays, we would visit our Grandparents with extended family, including our cousins. One summer, my brother had a farm on the Illinois River. It sat above one of a series of backwater lakes of the river in Marshall County, Illinois.
The site was located above one of the sloughs that branch from the river. The slough area was a gravel bar. On this site Steve had found artifacts in the past, including a beautiful area with lots of wildlife and even today, Steve in our later years found various points from the Early Archaic through Mississippian periods. In 2011, the only petroglyph ever found in central Illinois was found on an eastern bluff adjacent to where we were searching. It is known as the Marshall Site. The site consists of a boulder carved with five petroglyphs. The petroglyphs, which archaeologists believe were created by Native Americans between 1673 and 1835, depict three anthropomorphs, an L-shaped figure and a possible aviform. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on August 25, 2014.
Normally, we would only search in the tilled fields. But this time after we were finished looking we decided to walk a spring where the two creeks met. We did not find much on our way down. But as we neared the bottom, the ravine widened and more springs joined in with more water flow. Here and there were piles of gravel that would cause us to slow down and look a little harder.
It is here where this tale differs depending on who is telling it. The way I remember it is I looked up ahead and on one of the gravel bars lying on plain site was a large point. I picked it up and couldn’t believe my luck. It was the largest point I had ever found, a 5 ½” long Adena-Waubes a (Fig. 1).
Adena-Waubesa spearpoints, often called Beavertails by collectors, are amongst the more common of the contracting Woodland period stemmed points. They are usually 2 ½” to 3” in length, but some can reach up to 5” or more. These points are distributed throughout Illinois. The Adena portion of the name is drawn from the Adena culture that occurred in Indiana and Ohio. The Waubesa marker, a reference more relevant to Illinois, comes from the same Waubesa contracting stem points recovered by David A. Baerreis at a site near Waubesa Lake in Dane County, Wisconsin. Adena-Waubesa are recovered on both Early Woodland and Early Middle Woodland period sites in Illinois dating from 600 BC to AD 150.
Now Steve’s version of this event is that I pushed him and lunged at the point as we were walking side by side. Now in his defense, my wife tells a similar story about a three-quarter groove axe. But I didn’t push him. I’d like to think I’m just a little younger and faster than he is. At least that’s the way I’m telling this tale.
References
Reed, Ralph, Robert L. Stern, Thomas E. McKern, Dale L. McKern, and David A. Baerreis
1976 Prehistoric Stone Artifacts of Illinois. People, Time and Place. Printed by the State of Illinois.
Marshall Site (Chillicothe, Illinois) Wikipedia
At top: Figure 1. The Adena-Waubesa found on the gravel bar near Babb Slough by the author. It measures 5 ½” in length.