Any rock hounds ?

[Davey Crockett]

Wheat whacker, That is a nice one. I have a smaller one that is similar but yours has such a nice tapered tip to it. Guy, I kick myself after seeing your pic. We had a real nice old tomahawk like that but the rock was broken/split. It was all there just had a fracture. There was some faded red paint on the head. We had an antique auction and put it on there and I forget what it sold for but I wish we would have kept it or at least taken some pictures.

The one in the pic with the hole could either be for making arrows or a weight for a fish net. I met a old feller back in the late 70s while exploring out in the middle of nowhere north of Newtown and he asked what my bride and I were doing and he said hop in. we spent the afternoon with him and he knew a lot and shared a lot. He showed us what he called fossilized dinosaur eggs but I don't know what to believe on the streets sometime. I have a few that I found around here that I will snap a few pics of. A year earlier I had broken my arm riding dirt bike and hit a big dugout in tall grass, His claims were that the old native would get in there and pile brush on top and bait it and sit and wait for an Eagle to land and reach out and catch it. Sounded far fetched but was interesting theory what that hole was.








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[Iwhackwheat]

Its hard to tell from the picture but its pretty close to being a perfect cone.

 

[Davey Crockett]

That looks like museum quality to me , Was that a North Dakota rock ? It sure in nice. I don't recall where I found the smaller dark one that I posted. I am pretty careless with my rocks and stones , Picked up the one with the hole out side in a rock garden. Need to gather them up this summer.

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I am not positive on this but yours being broken and repaired shouldn't have a significant impact on it value to you or anyone else, The important part is that it looks good and no missing pieces that I can see.

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I keep calling them rocks , A stone is a rock that has been made into a tool and a rock is in it's natural form.

 

[NDbowman]

Pretty interesting finds you guys have.

Would be interesting to know what the Natives did with those rock hammers. Were they just for smashing enemies skulls or were they used to crack big bones for marrow?

 

[Davey Crockett]

I wish I knew too , Hopefully someone can post a documentary or you tube channel with that info. I looked a few times and didn't come up with much of anything. Also the rock Museum at Parshall was fun , I think it was 1977 when I went the first time and when my boys got older we went there again.

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All I know is that some of the flint tools were used for skinning and cutting up meat and some of the bigger rocks were for grinding corn and grain. Must of been a lot of work to make those tools and then leave some behind when they moved .

 

[guywhofishes]

http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/cupstones.htm

 

[Frosty....]

New Mexico has a state park called Rockhound state park. They let you keep up to 15 pounds of rock that you find. I didn't realize we had opal in the United States until talking with a fellow 1000 miles later. I found five of the local Thunder Eggs, but like a green horn idiot I threw away opal. The ground was covered with Jasper in places. The Thunder Eggs were located on top of sheets of obsidian.

I am gonna have to check that place out...I am only a few hours away. Thanks for the tip!

 

[1lessdog]

A couple of hammers and a fang I found. The guys at NDSU have on idea what the fang is from

I should not have cut the root section off. I cut about a inch and a half off it. So would have been close to 5 inches long.

 

[Davey Crockett]

http://missourifolkloresociety.truman.edu/cupstones.htm

Interesting, Thanks for sharing. I think I have one, It looks like it's been scribed in the shape of a cross.



I whipped the dust out of the hole and left a mark in the dust but it's smooth like it's been worked with something , It has a small dimple in the center of the hole.


I've never saw a coral reef and assuming that's what this is , I don't remember where I bought it so guessing it came in an auction sale box of goodies. I know I didn't find it. It resembles a petrified heart .





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This is good therapy when in the hunkered down mode, I dug around and found rocks that I forgot I had and found that I am missing a bunch that I know I had.

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Not sure if all of these were tools but a couple are worn down so there is a good chance. Turtle Mountains are full of rock and I think there are a lot that resemble tools that the Native Americans didn't find.

 

[deleted member]

Sheesh... you guys have found some good shit.

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I cant find my own nutz most mornings

 

[fireone]

We used to call grooved oblong ones hammer stones. Back in the '50s an old guy said plains Indians needed mauls to smash leg bones of bison they had killed for marrow, as someone mentioned here. Bison are supposed to have the toughest bone. Indians had to peg down tepees and raw bison skins too and I bet it took a pretty good maul to drive pegs in some of that hard ground. I regret now that some of those we just threw away when picking rocks.

 

[snow]

Like north dakota colorado is a great place for us hounds,over the years living in breckenridge colo we would head out to the high plains 20 miles west of town most often trout fishing,many times wilst hiking streams we would encounter old t-pee rings where natives set up camp many years before,most often wilast sniffing around we would find arrow heads near spots with chips of white quartz that they used for arrow heads/spears as they made them....same thing wilst gold paninng in the high country,we would come across old village sites and score some really great items but never took the time to dig around as most often these areas were on someone elses gold claim/mineral rights,some folks get overley protective of these areas and don't like strangers sniffin around

 

[fireone]

Guys, when you have these artifacts make sure you document their provenance, where and when they were found. It greatly increases their value when you pass them on. An old fellow I know had an extensive collection but no documentation and it slashed the value and meant far less to his heirs. Davey, that carved bison would be interesting at the Antique Road Show and I bet you would be surprised at it's worth.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Good advice on the documentation fireone , I am going to take pictures and take inventory with description. Most of what I have came from the farm except for a few odds and ends I picked up at auctions.

I should have someone look at the bison , We went to Antique roadshow in Bismarck and Fargo but brought other items. What I wanted to bring was a stone carving of a face similar to the one snow posted but inverted , Meaning the material was removed on the areas without detail and the detail is raised. My wife's Dad found it in the field many years ago but sadly it was broken and he only found half of it, I'm pretty sure the other half is still out there so we might go looking this summer just for the fun of it.

We had planned on bringing it to the Fargo road show but we were running late and didn't have time to go get it. Most of my rocks are under the snow so will have to wait for that to go. Might dig through some old coins and tokens next. We have a trading token from the 1800s from Standing Rock reservation that says good for a pound of salt.

 

[riverview]

everything except the petrified wood came from the rrv.

 

[Davey Crockett]

Those are some dandies riverview.

 

[riverview]

Those are some dandies riverview.

I have very few compared to my brothers, they have a lot of arrow heads

 

[Davey Crockett]

I have very few compared to my brothers, they have a lot of arrow heads

I'm doing inventory and finding some neat stuff that I forgot we had, I'll post a couple more pics when I get finished .

I used to visit with an old guy that went into the CCC during tough times , It was quite a program and lots of log cabins at state parks were built, Road built and stuff. He was on a project at the Souris river when they were building the refuge roads and he told how they would walk behind the road grader and fill their pockets with arrow heads . The only ones we have found was at estate sales.

 

[bravo]

I love this kind of stuff. Always looking but never found any artifacts. A few interesting fossils here and there. I remember a big boulder on a WPA I hunted with my dad as a kid. It had an imprint of a small bird head / feathers and what looked like bird and insect tracks around it. I should take a trip there this fall and see if it’s still around.

 

[7mmMag]

I found this bone in a small creek this summer. It would be interesting to find what/where/when it came from.