From Dirt Bro Henry
Helene in Iowa:
Henry sent in the pics forwarded by the finder, who wishes to remain
anonymous. He did, however allow us to publish the pictures he sent and
his story. THANKS!
The point was found in a creek in Woodbury County Iowa. I have
a particular
creek that I love to hunt after each and every rain....I was
in this creek
and had been walking it for about an hour when from about 20
feet I spotted
what I knew was a projectile point on a gravel bar. As I got
closer I could
clearly see that the point was fluted...I have to tell you I
got goosebumps
and verbalized this phrase right after spotting it "what the
Fxxx is that".
Sorry for the bad language but that's what I said. I walked up
and knelt
down and just stared at if for awhile. I picked it up looked
to the sky and
said "thank you Jesus" what a hypocrite, cursing one second and
thanking
Jesus the next.
It was the first fluted point I had ever seen. I was not sure
if it was a
clovis or folsom but knew it was very special. I left the creek
immediately
to do some research on the Internet. I soon found out that what
I had found
was indeed a folsom and extremely rare.
There have been 24 folsom's found in southwest Iowa and one north
of
Woodbury county in Plymouth, with a few also found in eastern
Iowa. I
believe this point washed out of the north facing wall of this
creek and
ended up on the gravel bar just below. The wall is about 30 feet
high.
I sent the folsom to Bill Jackson for authentication and after
finding out
what it may be worth I made the decsion to put it up for sale.
Bill offered
it to his clients but no one was interested at the time because
of the high
price we had set. He suggested I send it to Jeb Taylor, which
I did and to
my suprise he decided not to paper the piece believing it looked
too sharp
to be 10-11,000 year old and not the color he had hoped to see
with the
black light. He would not say it wasn't authentic but would not
paper it due
to it's pristine condition.
I believe that it is in the condition it is in because it was
not in the
creek all of those years but stuck in the clay wall. I do respect
Jeb's
decision not to paper the piece but also believe that he missed
out on one
of the finest folsom's ever found. We were talking in the 30's
before he got
the opportunity to see the piece.
I sat on the piece for about a year and got back in touch with
Bill Jackson
to see if he thought anyone would be interested in the piece
at a somewhat
reduced price. He agreed to contact some clients again and also
sent the
piece to Dr. Perino for possible papering. Dr. Perino papered
the piece and
it was sold just a few months later.
I believe the Folsom is to end up in a museum being built for
indian
artifacts in Arkansas.
I do wish I still owned this artifact,knowing full well this folsom
is one
of the finest ever found and may go down as one of the finest
of all time.
Once again thanks for your interest and I do feel honored to have
been the
one to find it. I have attached a picture of the very spot the
folsom was
found. The stick in the gravel marks the spot.
(picture of spot mentioned is on next page)
Bob
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