Swope Park arrowheads

Some eight years ago I pulled the sharp top of a flint arrowhead from a dry creek bed on the Hill; the "BlueRock" flint fragment was knapped smooth and still had an edge- and it was soo cool! Today I return to search the creek for artifacts!

I drove up to the Hope building in Swope park and stopped to let Bill know what I was up to. He was far too worn to join me on the hunt, but we yaked and he told me to stop by again if I found anything really cool. From the building I bush-whacked towards the creek. The ground was still dark and damp from the weekend's heavy storms, but recent dry air had surely shallowed the creek. Mushrooms- russulas and bright jack'o'lanterns were common, along with a spongy white coral-mushroom-thing. Those odd, spiny, shelled orb-weaver spiders were thick at about chest-height. I hate to tear their webs down!

Even on the creek bed the webs were abundant- I walked upstream- with few exceptions the creek was dryer than I expected-a pleasant, promising surprise! I walked for a half-mile or so- past the junctions of two tributaries. I walked past the second creek, but turned back before I reached a third; I did find a nice hunk of beautiful petrified wood! It is several inches long and shows great detail! Also, I found a small shelf of exposed rock jetting from the side of the creek. It was tan; soft like sandstone and smooth like limestone and help many marine fossils. Lots of corals and shells... one half-dollar-sized piece shows a detailed leave and a dark, prickly shell-thing. I nabbed it...

The second tributary tempted me when I passed it headed downstream again; I had to turn up the creek. It took me to the railroad tracks where I found a great patch of cone flowers, bee-balms and black-eyed Susan-things. Glade remnants here are likely closely related to Rocky Point's-just on the other side of the hill.

I returned to the truck with no arrowheads or Indian artifacts, but the hike had delivered a needed dose of Summer-in-Missouri!