[AT] Nice day

[Larry D. Goss]

I grew up on the portage between the St. Mary's and Little Wabash rivers
up by Fort Wayne.  There is a gravel esker left by the last Ice Age that
forms a slight rise on the farm.  Dad chose that location for planting
an orchard.  It's ground that has not seen much cultivation over the
years.  It's been an orchard for the last 70 years and wasn't farmed
heavily before that.  We used to find arrowheads there on a regular
basis when I was a kid.  The fruit trees that are still there provide
cover and occasional food for a number of deer.  My brother hasn't
bothered to try to mow the orchard for the last 30 years, so it's nearly
impenetrable by a man on foot.  There probably are still a lot of
arrowheads on that hillside.  Like you, I've always wondered at what
life was like when those points got lost.  I'm even more amazed by how
far those chunks of rock traveled before they were lost.  After having
lived in West Virginia, I now recognize that several of them are made
from Kanawha Black Flint.

Larry

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Robinson
Sent: Friday, March 26, 2004 8:54 PM
To: FrugalRuralLiving at yahoogroups.com; Antique tractor email discussion
group
Subject: [AT] Nice day

	Our son was here after work yesterday and we walked down to look
at the 
tiny dam we had been doing a little work on. We got to talking and 
walked on back to one tiny woods about a quarter mile east from the 
house where there is another small pond. Looks like we may have a pair 
of otters in it this year. We kicked up a pair of mallards when we 
walked up. We were looking for deer antlers that may have been shed 
there. He said that a fellow that he works with hunts them every night 
and has close to a pickup load of them. We walked on back to the 
Christmas tree plot about a quarter mile north of there to look there. 
We walked on back in the general direction of the house and cut across 
one field that was in soybeans last year. I said "well, well" and 
reached down and picked up a perfect arrowhead in the dirt. My son is 
always having a cow about how I can find arrowheads and he can't.  :-) 
He turned the other way and said "I'm not even going to look at it".
:-)
	We don't find many here any more. Things have been searched
pretty 
heavy and the soil stirred pretty deep. Finding one always sets me to 
thinking about those who lived here before us and what the land was like

in years past. This was a small game point about 1 1/2" long and about 
1" wide at the back. Fairly thin and very nicely made. The fellow that 
made it was very skilled at his craft. I'm not knowledgeable enough to 
estimate its age nor which of the several peoples that lived in this 
area over the centuries made it. It triggers thoughts of wonder about 
how it came to be where I found it. The possibilities are endless. 
Carried off by an injured game animal? Used to shoot at a fellow human? 
Shot at a turkey and missed and lost? Carried by a child and dropped?
	While that field is gently rolling today an 1856 atlas showed a
stream 
crossing it indicated as having a running width in excess of 5 feet. 
Prior to that this area was very heavily forested. I'll be thinking 
about this for a few days...   :-)
-- 



"farmer"

Just when I was getting used to yesterday, along came today.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net



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