Indian Artifacts
April 9, 2011
I felt time was running out on the opportunity to photograph some Indian
artifacts I'd found last year. They were only flint chips and unfinished
arrowheads, but still, it's increasingly rare these days to see them at the
spot the were made, who knows how long ago.
The bluff shelter, which I will not name, was at the top of my list for the
Spring hiking season. I drove there on a sunny Saturday morning, my first day
off from work in over a month. I was relieved to see the 50-odd pieces were
still there; I was worried somebody else might have come along and took them
home for souvenirs. The chips were spread out on a low, wide boulder that
reminded me of a bench. Surrounded by woods with no sign of human development,
it was easy to imagine native Americans making arrowheads under the bluff
shelter many years ago. To be honest, it's possible the flint chips were left
there more recently by treasure hunters after a day of digging through the dirt
and rocks. But I didn't see any signs of digging, and I'd much rather keep my
romantic view of the situation.
I spent a long time scrambling among the rocks and boulders underneath the
bluff, which ran for more than a hundred yards along the steep mountainside.
The only interesting thing I found was a section of scale-tree fossil, about
nine inches square. With its distinctive diamond pattern, the scale-tree is one
of the few fossils found in sandstone.
I returned to the Tahoe and drove to the old Victor community, where I headed
north up Sulphur Road looking for a waterfall on the North Fork of Illinois
Bayou. I'd found a few pictures of the waterfall, which the locals call the
Blue Hole or the Mill Hole, in a Facebook page on the internet.
I was surprised just how beautiful the spot was. Along a ledge spanning the
entire width of the creek, five or six separate little waterfalls dropped into
a big hole of blue-green water. The bright overhead sun made for bad lighting
conditions, but I put a couple of filters on my camera lens to cut down on the
light and did my best to snap a photo. I'll definitely come back some day to
get a better shot.
