Mississippi Arrowhead Hunters Official Website

This website is dedicated to the arrowhead hunters and artifact collectors everywhere and features many artifacts from Mississippi Alabama. Making this site informative, educational and entertaining is my goal. I was born and raised in Meridian, MS. This area is home to one of the largest Tallahatta quartzite deposits in the world and is known for producing a wide variety of Paleo and Archaic points sometimes reaching lengths of 6-7 inches. In future updates, this site will be to provide information on new artifact finds, details of successful point hunts and share personal experiences and artifact collections of arrowhead hunters in Mississippi. In addition, there is a book coming to this and other websites soon on "How To Find Arrowheads". The expected released date is November 2011. If you have a personal experience to share or would like to have your collection featured on this site, please email Miss. Arrowhead Hunters at; missarrowheadhunters@archaeologist.com. by Ray Vaughn, Mississippi Arrowhead Hunters.

You never know what you will find when point hunting in East central Mississippi and West central Alabama. The prominent point types found here are Pickwick, Kirk and Abbey. Sometimes Bascom, Benton, Marion, Newman, Savanna River, Hamilton, Osceola, Greenbrier, Dalton, Bolen, Big Sandy and on rare occassions, a Clovis point. East Central Mississippi and West Central Alabama is along a regional archaeological division seperating the east central section from the southeastern section as illustrated in Overstreets Arrowhead Guide. An overlap of point type cultures is found in this area. Points that are more prominent in the deep southeastern archaeological region (south Alabama and Florida) or those more prominent in North Alabama and Tennessee may appear with some frequency in east Mississippi and west Alabama along this regional dividing line.

I know everyone has heard a story about unusual point and artifact finds in this area. Stories recounted from point hunters like the fellow who was swimming in the Chickasawhay River in Clark county, diving to the hard clay bottom and finding a pot hole with a black Clovis point caught inside. Another one shared with me by a lady whose brother was swimming on Tuxacanie creek in a sandy hole....he found a large spear point made of a translucent green rock. It was sent for authentication and came back as a Clovis point made from a green volcanic rock. And another is the story of a cache of (5) Clay type points made of Tallahatta quartzite and Coral which were found on Tombigbee River near Gilbertown, Al. Yet another amazing find is the 5 ceremonial spatulates (Spuds or ceremonial axes) found in a cultivated field on a high bluff along the Tombigbee river east of Waynesboro, MS. Or how about the creek near Millry Alabama where 2 Indian skulls were found eroding out of the creek bank as it cut across an ancient burial site. I personally saw these skulls. Another story I have heard from someone who worked the gravel dredges on Leaf River and Pearl River near Hattiesburg and Columbia is one in which many points including some huge ones were pulled up out of the gravel beds. These river gravel beds are sometimes 15 feet deep in gravel and dredges remove the gravel for commercial purposes. The dredge worker said on one occasion so many points were pulled out that they covered the area of a pickup truck bed and several were 6-8 inches in length. Point hunters spend many hours walking along creeks looking for points.

Sometime point hunters have pretty good luck and find a few artifacts. Sometimes even a killer. Sometimes you find just broken pieces or only a few flakes. We never know when we will walk up on something new that may be an awesome find or new discovery. Or an extremely rare artifact. One of my favorite experiences was on a hunt with Rex Anderson and my son Jason. While walking down a small creek, we stopped on a rock bar. As we were standing there looking around at the rock bar, I looked down and noticed that Rex, who was standing beside me, was standing on a large flat piece of quartzite partially exposed in the sand. I said, Rex move over and let me pick up that point. He stepped aside and I picked up a massive creek stained Bascom point. On a return trip, Eddie Spears found it's twin at the same location. This location also produced a large Pickwick and a 6.5 In. Kirk and these three very large points are now in my collection.

Recently I had an unexpected experience while looking for points in North Alabama. Having walked and dug on a creek for 2 days finding nothing but chips, I was mentally preparing myself for another let down. It looked as if I would find nothing. Then, within 5 minutes I had discovered a cave at the base of a bluff with points lying at the entrance and many more under the surface of the cave floor. Wow, now that's a turn-around of luck. I went from total let down to my greatest find to date when I was about to give up on this location for good.

There are huge quarry sites for Tallahatta quartzite in east central Mississippi and West central Alabama. Tallahatta stone is abundant in the rock strewn and hard bottomed streams and can be found in sizes from small pieces to larger boulders embedded in creek beds. Along the eroding creek banks thick layered outcroppings off Tallahatta quartzite can be seen and ancient quarry marks are visible where the ancient indians once quarried this stone for their tools. The stream beds here are a combination of sand, soapstone, hard clay bottom, limestone and sometimes even solid ledges of Tallahatta quartzite and usually not very deep. Many Paleo and Archaic points are found in the creeks beds of this area having been washed in long ago from flooding waters that sweep and erode the creek banks along which ancient camp sites were once located. With this abundance of lithic tool resource material, there is no limit to quality, quanity and the size of stone artifacts and tools that were produced by the ancient Indians who once lived in this area. The Pickwick point above is a 6.5 In. Tallahatta quartzite found recently in Choctaw county Alabama and is a fine example of the larger points found in the creeks of this area. If you've never handled one of these large Tallahatta points, you cannot imagine the size, weight and mass of these artifacts.

Beautiful Blue Translucent Tallahatta
Quartzite Outcropping.

The hills in east Mississippi and west central Alabama often coarse through Tallahatta quartzite outcroppings as shown in the picture left. This area has a heavy layer of Tallahatta quartzite that is a beautiful blue opaque and transluscent color with inclusions. The color varies somwhat from area to area. Creek pictured here is in Lauderdale Co., MS Photo submitted by Gerry Powers. Thanks Gerry