The Hardin tribune-herald. [volume] (Hardin, Mont.) 1925-1973, 1935-09-13

stone valley, near Livingston, who some
five years ago interested himself in COL
Letting arrowheads and studying the
probable history of the buffalo jumps.
Mr.. Nesbit started by ~excavating un-
der cliffs near his home, then in the
Madison and Gallatin country, and
more recently in the Sun river country
and in Teton county.
With Henry Lentfer Of Livingston,
Mr. Nesbit has made a number of trips
to the Sun river country since excavat-
ing near home. He has some LOO ar
rowheads in his collection, secured
chiefly from n of a group of IA cliffs
on Sun river and in the vicinity of
Emigrant.
Confirming the theory that the crud-
er arrow points are the newest, MI.
Nesbit points to his collection from the
cliffs near Emigrant. A cliff near the
mouth OF Emigrant gulch, east of the
workmanship. About a third of the
points secured here are of obsidian,
probably secured from Obsidian cliff in
Yellowstone park. Obsidian, while
easily Clipped, is brittle and difficult
to shape. A few points here are of
flint and jasper, but very crude.
West of the Yellowstone are two cliffs
close together. One yields points about
a third of which are obsidian, while the
other yields about a fourth obsidian
pieces, the remainder in each case being
of hard stones. Except for the obsidian
points, the arrowheads found at these
two cliffs are of better workmanship
than those found east of the river.
At each of these cliffs, all within
a radius of five miles, the designs OF the
points differ from the others, par
ticularly in the shaft notchings, and
most of them show a variation in shap-
ing, in addition to varying degrees of
crude craftsmanship.
The Gallatin cliff yields about half
obsidian points of better workmanship
than the Yellowstone finds. The hard
stone points also are better, showing a
few specimens Of great skill, infinite
pains and accuracy of outline. The
Madison cliff south of Logan has about
20 per cent obsidian points, the re-
mainder of hard stone and the entire
group showing better workmanship than
any of the others, with a smaller per-
and Gallatin collections differ from
each other and from the Yellowstone
groups in design and markings.
In the Teton county group only one
obsidian point vas found, the remain
der of light grey stones, lighter in color
than those found in southern Montana.
The Teton group as a whole showed
considerable skill, with many really
fine points found in the collection.
On Sun river, Mr.. Nesbit and Mr..
Lentfer found IA different cliffs within
found in the debris at the foot of each
cliff bore characteristics distinctive to
itself and different from finds at the
neighboring cliffs. The points found
here are generally very finely formed
and all of hard stones.
Mr. NeSbit devoted most of his effort
on Sun river to one particular cliff
which yielded the finest group of hard
stone points from the standpoint of
needle-finenesS of the points; all flat,
thin stones with sharp edges and needle
points.
Indication that this particular de-
posit of arrowheadS was far older than
any of the others was found in the fact
that drift-mining methods were re-
quired, on a small scale, to secure the
points.
At the Yellowstone, Madison and
Gallatin cliffs, at those in Teton coun-
ty, and at the other Sun river cliffs,
but little excavation was necessary to
reach the deposits of old buffalo bones,
buffalo hair, etc., in which the points
are found.
At this drift-mine cliff, Mr.. Nesbit
had to start at the base of the cliff as it
stands today and work back some IS
feet under about eight feet to follow
the deposit, which pinched out much as
would an ore vein, indicating that over
a long period of time silt and earth had
been dropped in the lee of the original
cliff to move it face forward some Is
feet from its original position. The
points found in this deposit show dis
tinctly different characteristics in shap-
ing and workmanship to set them
apart from those found at cliffs within
a very short distance.
The differences in design and quality
of workmanship found in the arrow
heads at each cliff was rather surpris-
ing to Mr. Nesbit, and the discovery
has turned a mildly interesting hobby
of merely gathering arrowheads into a
keenly interesting search for more
varieties of points from other buffalo
jumps. He expects this fall to visit
new locations in quest of more points
and possible clues which may give some