“Chert of a suitable quality occurs in many localities in Wisconsin in strata or in nodules and also in the glacial drift. Of this local material the greater number of our flint implements are manufactured. Quartzite is quite widely distributed in Wisconsin, and this stone was also much utilized in implement making. It occurs in a variety of beautiful colors, from white to bluish or greenish gray, and from light brown through various shades of brown to a rich orange, and from a flesh color to a bright carmine. Implements made of light brownish quartzite are the most common and most widely distributed. Like other stone implements, Wisconsin quartzites present all grades of workmanship and finish. The majority are of ordinary workmanship, while others are finely or beautifully chipped. What agate and obsidian artifacts are to the West, quartzites are to Wisconsin. Quartzite quarries of small extent have been found at several points in the state. Mr. William H. Ellsworth of Milwaukee is the owner of an especially choice collection of quartzite implements.
“In the Fox River Valley are obtained numbers of arrow-points and other implements made of the rhyolite which occurs there. Implements made of quartz are found in the same region and in smaller numbers elsewhere. Implements made of chalcedony, agate, jasper, slate, sandstone, limestone, and other stone are also found in Wisconsin.
“There is evidence to show that a considerable traffic in the finer qualities of flint and other materials desired for the manufacture of arrow- and spear-points, knives, etc., was carried on in prehistoric times with tribes in outlying and distant regions. Excursions may also have been made to points for the purpose of quarrying such stone. Thus blue and brownish hornstone appears to have found its way to Wisconsin over the trails from the quarries or deposits in Ohio and Indiana in the form of blanks, discs, and nodules. Some finished implements were probably also imported. Thousands of implements made of this hornstone are widely distributed throughout Wisconsin. The choice ivory white and pinkish flint appears to have come from Illinois or regions farther to the south. Black flints entered from the same direction. Some of the beautiful tortoiseshell-colored chalcedony so frequently employed here may have been imported from localities in Minnesota or North Dakota. A small number of obsidian implements have been recovered from mounds in southwestern Wisconsin and from fields and sites elsewhere in the state. Mr. Publius V. Lawson has published a list of some of these.
“There is much yet to be learned concerning the materials, extent and direction and causes of this early inter-tribal commerce of the Upper Mississippi Valley. The present lack of a greater knowledge is largely due to the lack of state organization and intelligent coöperation on the part of archæologists and students in the outlying states of Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota.
Fig. 214A. (S. 1–1.) Spear-point of agate from a mound in Ramsey County, North Dakota. H. Montgomery’s collection.
“Owing to the time and toil required to carefully examine the great number of both public and private collections now existing and being developed in Wisconsin, studies of the distribution of the numerous local forms of flint implements have but been begun. It is, however, possible to venture a few general statements concerning them. Thus certain forms of arrow- and spear-points are found commonly in most districts of the state, some are of much more common occurrence in certain areas than in others, some appear to be limited in their distribution to only certain restricted areas, and others are of infrequent or rare occurrence everywhere. About Aztalan, in Jefferson County, and in the region of the Madison lakes, there are obtained specimens of a small notched triangular point which is also occasionally provided with a deeply notched base. But very few examples of these delicate and beautiful flint implements appear to have been found elsewhere. In the latter region is found a small barbed point of choice workmanship, with truncated barbs, and frequently with serrated edges. It is wholly unknown or of very rare occurrence in most parts of Wisconsin. Blue hornstone knives of the peculiar diamond shape have been found sparingly by single examples or in caches, in many localities in southern Wisconsin.
“A lack of space forbids the description of other forms of unusual interest. In the Logan Museum, Milwaukee Public Museum, State Historical Museum, the H. P. Hamilton, J. P. Schumacher, and several other collections are to be seen specimens of a rare and beautiful form of large flint ceremonial knife, which appears not yet to have been described from other states. These implements are somewhat elliptical in form, with a narrow square or slightly rounded base. All are finely chipped of selected material, and are graceful and beautiful implements. They range from nine to thirteen and a half inches in length and from three to three and a half inches in width across the widest portion of their blades. Most of the specimens, whose history it has been possible to fully trace, have accompanied burials in graves, in some instances associated with other implements.”
Illinois and Missouri were favorite camping- and hunting-grounds of prehistoric man (see Figs. 54, 57, 181), and chipped implements are as numerous in Illinois as in any state in the Union. The material is yellow chert, white flint, nodular flint; hoes and spades abound. Many flint celts occur and the flint art is high. Illinois and eastern Missouri and northeastern Arkansas types are characterized by light colors, broad thin blades, etc.
Iowa and western Missouri present implements of white flint which when seen cannot be confused with those of other sections of the country, for the form is peculiar (see Figs. 118 and 122). On the Plains, from the Black Hills to the Arkansas River, large rough implements abound (see Figs. 153 and 174) on certain sites, but generally the projectile points are small and slender. The notched objects of flint, probably used as axes, are common in certain sections. Scrapers are to be found everywhere in this region.