Yellowstone Obsidian...

Neat article.

The Valles Caldera in Northern New Mexico is sometimes called "little Yellowstone", and obsidian is scattered all over the Jemez Mountains. On the east side near Los Alamos there is "Obsidian Ridge" which is aptly named, picked up a lot of artifacts there while deer hunting, but only one that I would call a finished product, what I think is a small hand axe.
 
Last edited:
There is a camping spot in the north end of the Monitors in Nevada that has what I think is an old obsidian cache. I’ve seen lots of flakes but never a bunch of unworked chunks all together like there. The north and east side of the Jarbidge wilderness has lots of obsidian.
 
20230328_214532.jpg20230328_214513.jpg

Made by my friend. It's crazy to watch guys flake one of these out and think it's been done in about the same manner since some cave mane dropped a rock and realized it was sharp!

Different styles yes. But percussion and pressure flaking goes back a long ways...
 
Great article! Thanks!

When I lived in So Cal, I spent way too much time in the Golden Trout Wilderness. I found a good sized cache of obsidian in the crotch of an old tree. I have three boys, so no telling what happened to it.
 
I have a knife made of black by a native friend. He's Lakota so even tho he is in NM now I'm pretty sure it is Yellowstone obsidian. I'll find out.

My neighbor, a geologist and I have found lot's of cast offs, breaks and working spots with chips.
I have found a couple white arrowheads and a black around here. Lots of hide scrapers. A broken spear.
I find a lot of calsidny(sp?) stuff I think is something and he tosses it. Too brittle he says.

His granddaughter picked one up right in front of his front door, a perfect one in black. He has found none on his place. LOL

Pretty sure the obsidian around here is mostly from the Valles Caldera. Trades.
There is other stone here from Techado Mtn, and in the Gila.
 
Here are a few broken arrowheads made of black obsidian that I found on my property. House is on the top of a hill that must have been heavily occupied by native people at one time because artifacts are a fairly common find. I'm also much closer to the Valles Caldera/Jemez Mountains than Yellowstone so that's likely where these ones came from. Screenshot_20230329-100521.png
 
That's a really nice one Kurt!

Here's a few I've found... totally agree - better than diamonds.

View attachment 269397
That's dang cool. Not only are they interesting based on the geology/formation aspect, but the fact that someone sat down and crafted them eons ago. I am from Michigan and have found many in fields after getting worked and then rained on, in the very places I bow hunt now, albeit with a tad more sophisticated methods...
 
That's dang cool. Not only are they interesting based on the geology/formation aspect, but the fact that someone sat down and crafted them eons ago. I am from Michigan and have found many in fields after getting worked and then rained on, in the very places I bow hunt now, albeit with a tad more sophisticated methods...
We may have more sophisticated equipment these days, but can you imagine the level of genius it took to invent the first bow. How about the guy who invented flint knapping?
 
I know a guy, a friend of a friend, who can knap an arrowhead as fine as any native American ever did. I doubt he still does it but there was a time that whenever he went hunting or hiking, he would take a few of his arrowheads along and drop them along hiking trails or other places he figured they would be easily found. He thought it was funny that he was fooling people into thinking they had found a genuine Indian arrowhead.

I wonder what the legality of keeping one of those artifacts is.
 
I found an obsidian pint in an arroyo outside of Chama years ago, sometimes you hear of people around sw georgia talk about finding points made out of "muckalee black flint", due to the high concentration found around the muckalee creek. (Made famous by an L. Bryan song)

I would love to know where it would have really come from
 
We may have more sophisticated equipment these days, but can you imagine the level of genius it took to invent the first bow. How about the guy who invented flint knapping?
We do not appreciate and respect those that came before us nearly enough. I could go on about that for days...
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
110,811
Messages
1,935,267
Members
34,887
Latest member
Uncle_Danno
Back
Top