EDITED: Artifacts found while hunting / hiking?

Sytes

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Notice... There are legal hobby opportunities for certain items, permits required for others, exemptions for most items on private land, and additional info for State lands.
Edit added: USFS .PDF link: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprd3800357.doc


While involved with a family trek w/in Billings through Bozeman, we had an opportunity to walk through MSU's, Museum of the Rockies.
Any traveling through, it's worth the stop.

Had me thinking back to the different odds and ends discovered throughout life's journeys outdoors. My father roamed many of our public lands dedicated to locating early human locations, focused on the fur trappers and traders of our Rendezvous days. The collection he displayed was a museum in itself, albeit mainly a china cabinet or two... Most items left as they stayed, many items donated to museums fitting their area of interest.

Anyhow, I've come across many old, almost unidentifiable "cabins" of past days during hunts and hikes. Items here and there. Best find was an intact Ben Franklin type glasses.

We are probably one of the main groups of people who traverse our outdoors extensively. What special artifacts have you come across?
 
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Hunted oryx on the Jornado farm in Las Cruces, NM. Tracked the animals over several miles. Stepped on Indian artifacts every 2 foot. Federal land and could not pick up anything. Was amazing!
 
Found a Matate' on top of a Mtn. while Javelina hunting.Left it alone,
Took home a huge Pig.:cool:
 
I regularly find chips and chunks of stones that have been worked. Once you learn to recognize them they are basically everywhere. 2 years ago I found a beautiful bird point made from chert while hunting on a friend's small property. I gave it to a gal...we all know that was a mistake. Lots of old cabins or random wooden fences.

I see plenty of tipi rings, stone strategically placed, etc. I was working on a stockwater pipeline near the breaks and I found an previously undocumented cultural site. Consisted of porcellanite knife (and pieces), chert stones, manipulated quartzite, and one angry horned lizard. The porcellanite was linked to a quarry down by Otter Creek in SE Montana which suggested long distance trading with a tribe that didn't hunt up there.
 
Well my dad and I have collected artifacts for years so I've got plenty of those. Oddly enough, a lot of the finds were accidental finds while out hunting. One of the coolest "artifacts" I've found while out and about walking is probably less than a quarter mile away from me while I sit in the office here at work. It is a large, probably 4 feet across, grinding stone from a grist mill. It is about half buried across a creek from one of my storage tanks. There isn't any obvious parts of the building left, probably carried off over the years to use in other buildings, but there had to have been one there at some point housing the mill. I'd assume that they had the creek diverted slightly to provide the power for it. I could recover the stone. It is on village property and the village administrator/mayor gave me permission. However, I'd rather leave it there for someone else to find and comptemplate the history of it all. I haven't told any of the other village workers in fear that they would take it.
 
Found the black object near Buffalo, WY. Appears to be tooth of a young mammoth or mastodon.

The farm back in the Midwest has lots of artifacts spanning no less than three distinct tribes. Picked up a lot of arrowheads, spear points, tomahawks and pottery shards walking those fields while out hunting and fishing. My brother mounted a few onto cow hide from the farm when I was graduating grad school.
 

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What I always find amazing is how many people do no know that its illegal to take artifacts and animal fossils from public lands...
 
Here in the midwest I find "artifacts" I wish people would take home with them. Most woodlots are growing over ravines that were considered fair game for throwing your garbage in. Lot's of junk that maybe in 200 years people will be excited to find: hubcabs, paint cans, tangled rolls of barbed wire, etc.
 
Artifacts all around here. Have a stone hunt pit/shelter up next to the old homestead dugout.
I have found spots around here where pottery shards cover a couple acres.
 
I have found quite a few ammonites near where I hunt. The most interesting thing I ever turned up was a sawed off Remington Targetmaster bolt action 22 rifle someone had tossed in a stream. I can only speculated on the when and why.
 
Bambistew is correct Leave Artifacts where they lie for others to enjoy.:cool:
 
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What I always find amazing is how many people do no know that its illegal to take artifacts and animal fossils from public lands...

Great info, Bambistew! From a general, broad comment. There are many exceptions within though.

The tidbits to keep in mind. In fact, I'll add something to the opening post to advise people not aware of the intricate legalities.
This is a great setting to share this information. How many might p/u some form of "artifact" as defined legal or illegal?

State each hold their own legalities...

For U.S. public land, etc there are select illegal, exemptions, hobby, commercial permits, depending on the type of item and location. Petrified wood, as an example...
This shares above information specifics, for any interested. It's a direct .pdf link to the fs.usda.gov site.

Recent edit. Prior link did not work. Here is the correct .gov .PDF link

 
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Working in the forest most of my life I have come across a lot of artifacts both Indian and pioneer. The most interesting was the remains of an old musket in an area that was heavily mined back in the 1860s and 70s. It was right after a fire so there wasn't anything but rusty steel left but it was pretty cool. The scariest was when I was rummaging around what was left of an old cabin and I came face to face with a large rattle snake. I stood up and started backing out slowly and only then did I notice a total of eight rattlers. It was early spring so I guessed there must have been a wintering den under the rubble.
 
I guess I should clarify that all of our Native American artifacts where found on private property, from farm fields and eroded creek banks.
 
I found two arrowheads on Prickly Pear Creek while fishing as a kid. Lots of mining stuff. A buffalo skull. When they drained Park Lake south of Helena 15 years ago, I went out on the lakebed and found all sorts of beer cans and lures of yesteryear in the mud. Not sure if that counts.

I daydream about finding the remains of some human of prehistory, buried in mud or dessicated on the scree. Just south of Helena is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Montana, and the father of a friend once found the skull of a Native American in the Boulder Valley. I like to imagine how they used different chunks of country in their time.
 
I'll have to get a picture from my Dad of the baby moccasins that a neighbor lady of my great grandparents made for my grandfather when he was born. My grandpa was born in 1916 in Ronan Montana and their nearest neighbors were a Native American family. I guess being 103 years old, those may be considered an artifact.
 
As mentioned above, my grandfathers baby moccasins, as well as a stone pipe that he found when he worked for Hugh's Gardens in Hellgate Canyon near Missoula. The gardens are now covered with apartment buildings.

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Amazing how well they've kept! If not for heirlooms, they would be a great addition to the Museum of the Rockies. A nice display of tribal items on display. If I recall, I think they had a colorful beaded set of moccasins(?). The ones from your grandfather hold a real substantive value.
I've stopped in the tribal museum in Pablo. The Curator was great to listen to and the items were interesting to view... Though the museum in Bozeman was a real treat!

The T-Rex was found in Montana. Come across some faint bone shapes just edging the ground or wall of that nature while hunting... Hell Creek, MT Breaks / Jordan area.

102356
 
A few of the artifacts I have found over the years. I am by no means an avid arrow head hunter. If you spend enough time doing ranch work and know what to look for you will find a few.
 

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