by John Beasley, Gleason, Tennessee
Volume 71, Number 2, April 2024 Central States Archaeological Society
In today’s fast paced high tech world, a person often needs some type of outlet to relieve stress and anxiety more than ever before. Finding a way to occupy one’s mind with an enjoyable activity can be beneficial to our overall health. I have learned that walking creeks and ditches can be a very effective way for people who love the outdoors to both clear their mind and also find ancient artifacts.
I live in an area of west Tennessee where the creeks and ditches are geologically different from many other parts of the country. They generally have a clay bottom and are mostly filled with sand. Since they are not lined with bedrock and filled with other large rock or chert, they tend to be much deeper. I have found from my experiences walking creeks in different areas, and talking with other creek walkers from other states, that the hard soil clay-bottom creeks filled with sand and gravel, are more productive for finding artifacts than the creeks filled with large rock. In my opinion, the best creek walking areas are in southern Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky, west Tennessee, northern Mississippi and Alabama.
Late winter on through the springtime months is the best time of year to give creek walking a try. The freezing and thawing of the ditch banks along with heavy springtime rain, can really change the landscape throughout the ditches and creeks. When the winter temperatures fall below freezing for a few days and nights, the creek banks will freeze usually 6” to 8” deep. As the air temperature warms back up above freezing, the sides of the creek banks will cave off and any artifacts in that layer will end up in the creek bottom. High winds from thunderstorms, toppling trees growing along creek banks can also change the surface of the creek beds. When the trees are blown over from heavy winds, often times they fall into the creek or a ditch, drastically changing the flow of water around them. This completely changes the creek bottom surface, often exposing artifacts that have been hidden for years.
During January of 2023, a heavy rain finally came along and washed out the ditches and creeks in my hunting area. I had been looking forward to this chance to artifact hunt ever since the leaves had fallen back in October. Thinking about my first chance to walk a creek after this heavy rain kept me from sleeping well the night before. The weather forecast that day showed about a 60 percent chance of rain starting around 10 or 11 o’clock, so I didn’t have a lot of time to look for artifacts. Plus, I still hadn’t decided which ditches to walk. Lucky for me, one of my daughters was at my house so I asked her if she would drop me off in a ditch and pick me back up later. This would save me some walking time. She agreed, so we left the house within a few minutes. As we were driving down the road she asked, “Where are we going?” I said, “I can’t make up my mind.” About that time, rain drops started hitting the windshield. After changing my mind a time or two, I thought of a certain ditch. Since she was dropping me off I could get to the best spot quicker by taking a shortcut through the woods. She let me out of the car and I told her I would call her when I was ready to be picked up. After walking over a couple hills in the sprinkling rain, I reached the spot.
The first thing I noticed was the ditch looked really clean of sand from the heavy rain a couple days before. A large debris jam had washed out and had taken the sand with it, leaving the clay bottom exposed upstream for a good way. Instead of looking below the debris jam for 100 yards or so like I normally would, I began to look above the area where it had been lodged for the last couple years. I didn’t walk but a couple minutes before spotting a small stemmed point lying on top of the broken pieces of sand rock. I videoed myself picking it up, looked at it for a moment and then stuck it in my pocket. I thought to myself that this day was starting out good right off the bat. I only took about a dozen steps before seeing another stemmed point. This point was in the water. It was covered with a thin mud film that had settled on everything after the water level in the ditch had returned to normal. I could see about 4” of a stemmed blade and prayed the rest was there hidden under the surface. As I took out my phone from my pocket to video the find, my excitement started to build up. I reached down and picked up the longest, prettiest Pickwick knife I have ever seen. I could not believe my eyes. I was so shocked and excited at the same time that I could hardly think straight. It was sprinkling rain so I hurriedly put my phone back in my dry pocket. I admired the knife for a few moments and tried to put it in my top coat pocket but it was too long. After wrapping it in paper towels, I put it in a larger pocket. I was still just tickled to death that I found the artifact, but again started concentrating on finding another one.
Walking just a short distance, I spotted a reddish looking damaged Lost Lake. I could see the tip was broken before I picked it up. Still filled with excitement I walked up the ditch a short distance and there was a Harpeth River point made from Dover chert, completely intact. I wrapped it up and put it in my pocket for safe keeping! I started walking again, taking slow short steps, searching through the sand rock beds. All of a sudden I looked maybe 10 feet in front of me and saw another large Pickwick knife! I took out my phone and videoed it just like the others. It looked to be well over 5” long. I can’t really describe my excitement at that point.
I looked at my phone and from the time of my first video to the last video, only about 30 minutes had passed. Overwhelmed and amazed for sure, I was starting to run out of pockets to carry my finds. I didn’t want to put two of them in the same pocket for fear of damaging them. After I settled down a few minutes, I started walking on up the ditch in the sprinkling rain. I looked for about two more hours and didn’t find anything else. I called my daughter to come pick me up. I could hardly wait to show her my finds.
When I hopped in the car with a smile on my face she knew I had some good luck hunting. I said, “Well I picked the right ditch to walk today.” I started pulling out my finds and she was surprised at the 5 ½” Pickwick that I found last. Then I pulled out the 6 ⅝” Pickwick made from Buffalo River material (Fig. 1) and she almost ran off the road trying to look at it. We talked and laughed all the way home. She reminded me that I almost had her drop me off at a different ditch but changed my mind on the way. The debris jam being washed away made all the difference in the world. If not for that happening, I would not have found a single thing.
The thrill of the find is one of the main reasons I’m addicted to hunting for artifacts. That January day will always be a great memory for me. It was made even more special because my daughter was along for the ride.
Good luck artifact hunting everyone!!
Figure 1. The first Pickwick I found that day. It measures 6⅝” in length and is made from Buffalo River chert. The inset shows the point as it emerged from the water.