Going to Palo duro canyon state park this week, hoping to find some arrowheads with the kids while we're out there. Any tips? Places to look?

Tips? Yeah, don't get caught. It's illegal.

" The Antiquities Code of Texas (Natural Resources Code, Title 9, Chapter 191, as amended), passed in 1969, forbids the collection or excavation of artifacts on state and political subdivision lands without a permit. Permits are issued only to qualified professional archeologists. This law also contains provisions for the protection of designated State Archeological Landmarks on private property."

https://www.thc.texas.gov/public/upload/archeology-artifact-collecting-tx.pdf

$240 Worth of Pudding said:

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Tips? Yeah, don't get caught. It's illegal.

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Really? Didn't know that. Used to look for them all the time on my old lease in Young county.

Can't be illegal to find them, just to take them, right?

This.

Private land, do what you want. State or federal land, not legal.

Well, you aren't going to likely find much unless you can get off the beaten path. It's illegal to keep them. Which means everyone keeps them.

If you go back to school and become a geology major, you'll get access to some state parks where the unwashed masses don't get to go. Fortunately, being fine upstanding Aggies and all, no one leaves the parks with 1500 lbs of rocks, artifacts, soil, sand, plants, and maybe a pet Lizard because it's illegal and geologists aren't a special kind of weird.

If you find then on public land, please don't keep them; They are a finite resource. I can only hope that my grand children's grand children can know the pleasure of finding a good arrowhead and releasing it back from whence it came.

I got drawn to do the public hunt for Aoudad in Cap Rock Canyon State Park about 10 years ago. My buddy and I had shot a ewe and at that time you had to carry them out. We had ventured way off trail and were trying to get back to a road. As we were walking we passed by a perfect metate laying out there. It's still out there somewhere. I was too tired to really stop and admire it.

BrazosDog02 said:

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Well, you aren't going to likely find much unless you can get off the beaten path. It's illegal to keep them. Which means everyone keeps them.

If you go back to school and become a geology major, you'll get access to some state parks where the unwashed masses don't get to go. Fortunately, being fine upstanding Aggies and all, no one leaves the parks with 1500 lbs of rocks, artifacts, soil, sand, plants, and maybe a pet Lizard because it's illegal and geologists aren't a special kind of weird.

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As a geologist I may or may not have collected some very small rocks from different state parks, national parks, or historical sites (Vesuvius) since the small disclaimer on the bottom of my degree says I can.

Here's one my son recently found on our farm in hale county. According to the Facebook group artifacts of Texas, it is from the trans archaic period that ranges from 300 bc to 700 ad. This farm is a high point along an old draw. We find a lot of broken flint pieces, points hammer stones, and manos.

Palo Duro Canyon State Park has been open to the public since 1931, a state park since 1934. It gets 400,000 visitors a year. Believe me, every corner of the park has been scraped clean by this point.

And, as said above, if you do manage to stumble across a freshly exposed artifact, you can't legally keep it.

That being said, I'm jealous of the folks who do find and keep artifacts. One arrowhead was found on land my brother operated north of Hale Center, and he let the finder keep it. I've found a worked shard of Alibates flint on a farm in central Randall County.

I had an uncle who had a farm near the breaks in Dawson county. There was a slight rise just in front of his house, that he assumed had been a favored camping area. He must have been right, he found lots of artifacts there.

Are you somewhere along Running Water Draw? I grew up between Hale Center and Plainview, only have seen one artifact from near there.

Where CR135 goes through a playa west of the Azteca plant, an early settler told me they uncovered an Indian grave during road construction in the 1920s. Never heard what became of it.

If it was the 1920's, they probably threw the bones into the asphalt mix and kept paving.

vmiaptetr said:

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If it was the 1920's, they probably threw the bones into the asphalt mix and kept paving.

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Well, it was dirt then, so yeah, may still be in the fill dirt somewhere.

All found within a 30yd stretch at our place in LaSalle Co

CanyonAg77 said:

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Are you somewhere along Running Water Draw? I grew up between Hale Center and Plainview, only have seen one artifact from near there.

Where CR135 goes through a playa west of the Azteca plant, an early settler told me they uncovered an Indian grave during road construction in the 1920s. Never heard what became of it.

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My dad was born at home in Running Water Draw and attended a one room schoolhouse until they moved when he was in 3rd grade. Custom harvesting and share cropping shaped him.

There is a stream, Running Water Draw, and a former community called Running Water. There is still the remains of a school house at that location.

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/runningwater-tx

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/runningwater-draw

Remains of Running Water School

I grew up near Callahan Draw, which runs into Running Water over in Floyd County (to the east)

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/callahan-draw

This is a few miles west of Abernathy in what I believe is the black water draw

Don't know that area as well as I do RW, but I am familiar with it. If I'm not mistaken, further upstream on Blackwater is the Clovis Site, where the Clovis Point was discovered. And, of course, the Plainview Point in Plainview, off Running Water Draw. A few hundred miles NW is the Folsom site.

Ancient Americans were roaming the plains of West Texas and Eastern New Mexico for tens of thousands of years.

For archeology nerds, next time you're near Lubbock, check out the Lubbock Lake site. Blackwater Draw empties into the historic Yellow House Canyon near there. The site is unique in that there is evidence of human occupation from archaic times all the way to early white settlers.

The Ranching Heritage Museum is first rate, too, and there are some decent farm and windmill museums there

I have visited the Lubbock Lake site. It was pretty cool. There is lots of Native American history in the panhandle along with beautiful Alibates flint. I'd like to visit the Alibates quarry.

I've surface hunted, dug private, and purchased from reputable collectors for quite a while. Currently trying to put together a frame with an example of each type of Paleo point from Texas. I added this Clovis last week.

Nice collection. Alibates is a cool place, unfortunately not tons of stuff to see on normal tours. Try to schedule a visit during Archeology Day or some other time when they do tours to the normally closed areas.

And you can add a trip to Adobe Walls, which I wrote about earlier on a Panhandle Board thread

For buying someone's collection, how do you know if they weren't made in the last 100 years by gringos?

I've found a few good ones over the years at different hunting leases and a few in east Texas but I've wondered if purchased ones some people buy could have been made recently.

Be super careful. You need to know who you are buying from. If I am buying, it is usually higher end pieces that you would have authenticated. There are several quality authenticators in Texas. A few are Dwain Rogers, Bill German, Carlos Black. The artifact community in Texas really is not that big. Spend some time on the Facebook group "Texas Chert". There are guys like Jack Bates and Dr. Hester, etc. that are a wealth of knowledge. You will meet these same guys at most artifact shows in Texas. I usually make the show in Fredricksburg every year. The guys on Texas Chert will call out fakes and will get rid of those folks. There are weekly auctions that you should watch just to learn if you are interested. Brandon McDearman, M&A Texas Artifacts, and Ace Sanchez to name a few. Buying a fake will most likely happen to everybody at some point. Just be very careful. Garage sales and estate sales are risky!

I had a neighbor named Carlos Black from Marshall Tx while living in Treehouse back in '88.

I've found several at Big Bend Ranch, and left them all there. I suspect the only ones still there are ones I found in remote areas off the popular trails.

ttt with a question….. My late wife's grandfather had this "collection". Is there a way to tell if they're legit or just skilled copies? They seem awfully uniform.

Unfortunately, they appear to all be fake in my opinion. Many appear to be gift shop points from India. Shapes and flaking are wrong. You can post that picture on the Facebook group "Texas Chert". I'm assuming you will get the same answer. In an earlier post I named some good authenticators, however they get paid to authenticate so it would be a better idea to start on Texas Chert. You can still appreciate them for what they are.

There was a guy named Reinhardt that made big reproduction points known as "gray ghosts". Even though they are not authentic they have become quite collectible and have value. You will have to look up the story. I cannot recall it very well and do not want to mislead.

Yeah I think the flakings look too big to be real. But who knows.

Well……looks like $5 in the garage sale to me!

We ran down to the lease this weekend, found a few. My dad found a paleo point today.

Check creeks/washes and areas with heavy erosion.

Since we're posting pics, heres a frame of points from Montgomery County. All personal finds

BMCaginLTX said:

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If you find then on public land, please don't keep them; They are a finite resource. I can only hope that my grand children's grand children can know the pleasure of finding a good arrowhead and releasing it back from whence it came.

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LOL, "resource." Discarded/lost tool is more like it. If I lose an axe head in my backyard and some kid finds it in 500 years I hope he keeps it and shows it to his friends.

That's awesome! I need to find the pictures of the ones my grandfather made for us that he used to find in his garden in MS.

Not looking for exactly where you found them but would you mind sharing generally? Montgomery county is still pretty huge.

I'd surmise a creek bed. Gravel bars are a good place to look.

I see lots of Gary points in that frame above. Most of what we find are Atl dart points as the bow was a relatively recent development in the new world.