Vigo County Historical Society
Historical Treasure Article
September 25, 1988
By Deborah Curtis Drummy
Vigo County Historical Society
Arrowheads head of ancient collection
Visitors to the Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley notice rather quickly that the museum has a decidedly Victorian focus. The setting, an ornate, three story Italianate mansion nestled among other Victorian homes in Farrington’s Grove, certainly enhances that focus.
Given its 19th-century appearance and furnishings, it might surprise a few visitors to discover in the museum’s basement some holdings that could actually be several centuries, even thousands of years old.
This week’s historical treasure, a display of Indian arrowheads, features items used by Indians who lived on the banks of the Wabash River centuries before Paul Dresser or any other white man ever say her shores.
The valley at that time must have seemed like paradise to more than 500,000 Eastern Woodland people who made their homes here. The hardwood forests of hickory, walnut, oaks, maples and other trees held rich stores of nuts, fruits, berries and wild game. The clear, clean lakes and streams were abundant with fish, turtles and mussels. These Indians didn’t need to rely on a complicated system of production and distribution. Their needs were simple and easily met by the bountiful Wabash Valley.
The Indians of our area were mostly Weas, Miamis and Potowatomis, three of the many Algonquian tribes covering the Ohio and Mississippi valleys. For subsistence they combined agriculture with hunting, fishing and gathering.
They even collected maple sap. When local residents and tourists gather in our parks in late winter to watch maple sugar camps in operation, they might pause to remember that the Woodland Indiana had discovered the techniques of collection and cooking maple sap long before the pioneers.
One local collector says the best time and place to look for arrowheads is in a field in the spring. Find a field near a river or stream (a logical hunting camp site) and wait for it to be plowed. Walk the newly-turned earth, paying particular attention to high spots. The persistent hunter will find arrowheads, stone spearpoints, hammers, axes and pottery shards.
The Historical Museum of the Wabash Valley, 1411 S. Sixth St., is open from 1 to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.