North By Gosh Dakota Clovis Cache

[uniface]

Copped off the Internet :

[spearfish]

I am the guy who found this site, and I am indeed still around! We have been working the site now for about 4 years. To date, we attribute 130 pieces to the site. I have 54 that I found. The landowner and two of his friends dug up 80 pieces on one Sunday afternoon back in about 1975. Of the 80 there are 45 of them left and those 45 were donated to the North Dakota Historical Museum in Bismark, ND. The missing pieces were given away to people who stopped by saw what the landowner had and commented how they wished they could have one. The landowner gave the missing pieces away one or two at a time, not knowing what he had, or how old they were. He regrets his actions today.

[knife river]

Spearfish, do you have more photos of the artifacts? Would love to see more! Also curious about the materials. In the one pic, it looked like the material was porcellanite (the burgundy-colored piece) and maybe the gray one was also porcellanite, but could it have been Tongue River?

Thanks in advance!

[paleo_joe]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

Just for discussion purposes.

I'm not a subscriber to the Clovis-Solutrean theory, but from the cache these two blades are some of the best visual evidence I've seen.

Thanks for those pics! Very informative.

[Scotto]

Originally Posted by spearfish

I am the guy who found this site, and I am indeed still around! We have been working the site now for about 4 years. To date, we attribute 130 pieces to the site. I have 54 that I found. The landowner and two of his friends dug up 80 pieces on one Sunday afternoon back in about 1975. Of the 80 there are 45 of them left and those 45 were donated to the North Dakota Historical Museum in Bismark, ND. The missing pieces were given away to people who stopped by saw what the landowner had and commented how they wished they could have one. The landowner gave the missing pieces away one or two at a time, not knowing what he had, or how old they were. He regrets his actions today.

Hey Spearfish, thanks for the update and welcome to the forum!

[spearfish]

Hello everyone, I have been out of town for a few days, but will get some pictures posted for all of you. Knife River you are right about the one piece it is indeed porcellanite and was the very first piece that I found. In fact, it was the only piece above ground, all the rest were buried. The other piece that I am sure you saw in the picture that was posted here was buried and was broken in two places. I found both pieces but there is still one small piece missing. That is a gray type rock commonly found around here in scoria hills. Some pieces were made of quartzite and we are pretty sure they came from the Spanish diggings in South Eastern Wyoming. I am posting this link and in it you will be able to read more about the site I found and there are pictures of most of my points. A lot of the other pieces were made of chert, which was quarried about 15 miles south of the site on top of Sentinel Butte. Bruce Huckell was able to directly match my pieces to chert found on top of Sentinel Butte. Anyway, here is the link to David Kilby's write up on the site. David Kilby's Field Projects Enjoy!

[uniface]

That is one heck of a valuable link. Thank You. Spearfish !!

[Roy Capps]

Originally Posted by joshuaream

the first picture are the two pieces posted in the article. The second picture is some solutrean material.


Attachment 34089

Attachment 34090

I'm not a subscriber to the Clovis-Solutrean theory, but from the cache these two blades are some of the best visual evidence I've seen.

..Interesting article. I find it a common thing for Clovis first advocates to downplay any evidence of earlier peoples. It is a very common thing for any amatuer to have there discoveries and any information provided displaced or totally ignored even if the finder followed every rule of excavation. No Degree, no Input!!..I am paticuarlly interested in the traits I see in both photos shown here. What I see is a resemblence to the Lerma point. Many argue that the Lerma could be older than Clovis. I just read the Mastadon site kill article in which a actual bone point was found still embedded in a rib bone. I do not believe Clovis first believers will ever believe anything else even if hit in the face with handfuls of solid evidence..I personally do not believe early man walked here from anywhere upon there arrival in the Continent. I believe they did come via water and likely arrived from the East and not the NW area of the country..Lerma points,I do believe can vary in age and the finest examples may not be the oldest. Even knapping technology advanced in style and craftmanship...I had a lerma found in a dry cave in SW Texas that was found in the 1880,s by an Englishman.It and other clothing of Plains peoples and many other artifacts ended up in a British Museum. Long story short, auctions were held and many of the articles made there way back home...In defense of the West area of the country it is much more difficult to locate sites as it is still vast and not near as populated as the East and Midwest. Much land area is controlled by the Government. In the East just building more homes etc. have lead to major discoveries. Out West, well not even close in the way of building places and things..Yeah, rambleing on as new thoughts were retrieved as I wrote but I do believe early man was here long before Clovis and I do not believe they were Asian...Roy

[eddies]

very cool read, thanks for the post