Old-Time Indian Artifact Collectors in Muskingum County, Ohio Paperback – January 26, 2022

Scouring plowed fields looking for prehistoric Indian artifacts or digging into burial mounds looking for valuable relics has been ongoing in Muskingum County, east-central Ohio, since 1809, and became an especially popular pastime beginning in the latter half of the 19th century. It has been estimated that as many as 70 thousand Indian arrowheads (projectile points) have been found in the county over the years. This book discusses 201 individuals, including landowners and collectors, all but five of them deceased, who at one time or another saved prehistoric Indian relics which they found in Muskingum County. Individual collections ranged from less than a dozen items to over 15 thousand. Several thousand artifacts from these collections are illustrated in this book, including mound and rock shelter finds, but especially surface-collected material. Also featured in the book are the author’s own early recollections of surface hunting for Indian relics in the county beginning in the 1960s, when it was still possible to occasionally find a nice artifact. The book consists of 416 pages, with 515 photographs of sites, collectors and artifacts, many in color, along with 21 maps and 14 miscellaneous illustrations. Read more