Knapp time.

[Al Agnew]

I've found four complete Dalton points over the years, and a half dozen more rear sections.  Longest one is about 4 inches and an inch wide, and strongly beveled.  Another is much thinner, but a little wider and almost as long.  It's such a great find that I remember without looking at my records exactly where I found all four.  Two of them were on a high terrace at the intersection of two creeks in Cape Girardeau County.  One was along the edge of Wappapello Lake.  And the best one of all was lying in the bottom of a sandy wet weather creek in Ste. Genevieve County.

[Gavin]

A buddy makes them but I have no idea why. Does not use them for anything. I do like to take the kids looking  for when we see freshly rolled dirt.

[Quillback]

My grandparents had an 'Indian mound' on their farm in the MO Bootheel.  Used to look for points there when I was a kid, never found any complete points but found plenty of broken ones.  My uncle had a shoebox full of good points he found there when he was a kid, when he went away to college my grandma threw them out, she being a no nonsense kind of woman who considered them to be old junk.  My uncle still is a little aggravated about it whenever we talk about it.

Grandma rented out the farm when my grandad passed, and the mound was flattened, not that it was very begin with, just a rise in the land of a few feet, but modern farming they like that land to be as flat as possible.  My uncle took a look around about 10 years ago and not a point to be seen.  Farm was sold not long after that when my grandma passed.

[Quillback]

11 hours ago, snagged in outlet 3 said:

They have a lot at Dogwood Canyon too.

Must have been some great days for point hunting back in the 50's before the dams went in.

[MoCarp]

hunting points is a skill had a friend who taught me years ago, a guy who knows his stuff can walk behind someone new and fill his pockets, there are still plenty of good hunting areas, farm fields, creek gravel bars worn cattle/wildlife trails, any new construction sites, half the fun is scoping out an area and doing drive-bys till conditions are best for hunting them. if I remember correctly a few people got fined digging around TR when the water to so low a few years back, same at Stockton, buddy of mine found a dandy 4" knife point just laying on a rock fishing from a windy shore for whites.

my best point found was a nice dalton big almost 3-1/2 inches many and I mean many heartbreakers that if whole would have been 6" or more easy my best artifact is an full groove ax Ill try and get a pic and post

[Johnsfolly]

Couple of funny stories along these lines.

I knew a guy, Steve, that worked for me in the past and was kind of a prankster. He would do things like set up vine/twig doll (like from the Blair witch project) in front of a guys deer stand or put a buck skull on some brush down from another guys stand so that the antlers were above the brush and moving in the wind... This guys was a really skilled point hunter. He still had the most impressive collection of axes, points, etc. that I have seen outside of a museum. He would often hunt points with another guy that would walk past points. On one prearranged point hunt, Steve took a large point from his collection and wrote the other guys name on it and placed in a obvious part of a creek bed that they were going to hunt. So needless the say this guy actually found this point. He was so excited until Steve said "that's a great one! it looks like it has your name written all over it" then the other guy turned it over !

When I was in grad school I worked at a sanctuary in the Poconos. This property had only been owned by three families in the last 150 years (approximately 640 acres with a 56 acre lake). It was rather untouched. Back in the 40's they had a storm that had hurricane force winds come up through one of the valleys that knocked over hundreds of trees. They set up a mill on the property to mill those trees for lumber. In the mid 70's there was a archeological grad student that was looking for burial mounds on this property. He came upon a spot in the forest that appeared to have well over 40 mounds. He secured funding from the University to dig on some of the more prominent mounds. They spent the whole season mapping and digging several of the mounds and found nothing. Turns out the mounds were the remains of the root balls from the trees that were knocked down in that storm . I would not have wanted to go back to the department chair to explain this mistake.

[Johnsfolly]

By the way I found this point on Steve's farm and it did not have my name written on it .

[Johnsfolly]

@BilletHead or @Al Agnew or @MoCarp do any of you know if quartz was commonly used for points, particularly in the northeast? I found a quartz piece in Connecticut that I was certain was a point. I gave it to my brother when I went to college. Haven't seen it since.

[MoCarp]

my buddy found sugar quarts points in NE Arkansas near the black river...

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, Johnsfolly said:

@BilletHead or @Al Agnew or @MoCarp do any of you know if quartz was commonly used for points, particularly in the northeast? I found a quartz piece in Connecticut that I was certain was a point. I gave it to my brother when I went to college. Haven't seen it since.

        Not sure about quartz in the form of crystals but various quartzite from around the north America were used including a couple types from here in Missouri. Lots of common names like what MoCarp called sugar quartz but there are names for specific types. I have some Hixton from Wisconsin. In its best grade makes a nice point. When it is found in big pieces guys slab it to get more out of the rock. High dollar stuff in the flint knapping world. The finer stuff will knapp pretty good. The tough stuff needs a softer billet and guys actually use bowling pins and other wood billets. 

  BilletHead