Spring Flint Hunting trip 2016

 Even though I am a busy college student, I still have time during my spring break for a rock trip with my family! This year I wanted to find Indiana hornstone and various chert types from Tennessee. We started out following a lead my Dad got through a friend on Facebook. He doesn't really knap anymore, but showed us where he used to collect Indiana hornstone ten or so years ago. It was a fun spot, and we did find hornstone!

Here I am with one of the first pieces I found!

 Needless to say, this site wasn't super productive. Walking about a mile and a half up the creek, I was able to get a little more than two buckets of hornstone pieces. Not bad at all, but walking a mile and a half while carrying a bucket feels like a lot of work for the stone I picked up! Next up was Tennessee. While Kentucky does have a lot of good rock, we went there last year and I wanted to find rocks that I haven't found before. Thus, we skipped the state of Kentucky this time. So the first destination in Tennessee was near the town of Dover, looking for Dover chert. While we were staying in a hotel for the night, we talked to the owner who was an artifact collector. He gave us some additional information about where we might find chert, which ended up paying off. We went a few miles further East than I had planned, which led us into areas loaded with chert. The first place we checked had many round nodules eroding out of the road bank. Most of it was too weathered from the frost to be knappable, but I did manage to get a couple solid pieces.

Here is the aforementioned spot. There are several round nodules in this picture.

Here I am with one of the good pieces I found.

We moved on and turned down a road not too far from there. I looked in a deep ditch by the side of the road, and found good flint! I found what can be considered classic Dover flint, round nodules of what I believe is the Tennessee variety of hornstone, and varieties of chert that I have been unable to identify.

Here is the ditch with flint in it. Tons of flint on the ground, just gotta find the good pieces!

Another view of the ditch.

 We continued looking in the area. After driving a few roads over, we found a gravel road that had recently been graded and had a new drainage ditch dug. And let me tell you, it was chock full of flint! Most was light colored and grainy, but if one selectively looked for darker colored pieces, you could find buckets of good flint. I found Dover flint and Buffalo River chert at this location, and I got a lot of it!

Chert found at this location, with hammer for scale.

Here is the ditch loaded with flint!

Finding some nice Buffalo River chert!

The next day, we stayed in the same area. This time we checked a dry creek bed behind a little Baptist church out in the country. It was very scenic and full of flint as well! This was mostly Dover flint, but a lot of it was the very glossy, black variety. It is good stuff to knap!

Finding flint in the creek behind a church.

A cool landscape picture taken in the same creek.

A scenic view of the nearby Buffalo River.

 We also decided to got back to the dirt road and grab a few more buckets of flint. We continued to work our way South, finding several smaller locations along the way with flint. My family and I stayed at a cabin at Loretta Lynn's ranch, which was excellent and I would recommend that you stay there if you find yourself near Waverly, TN.

Our cabin at the ranch.

 While we were picking up rocks, I was contacted by a gentleman in Southern Indiana who was interested in flintknapping and had Indiana hornstone outcropping on his property. We met up with Brian, and he turned out to be a great guy! We spent an hour or two picking up some excellent hornstone from his property, then I showed him how to knap. He seemed to pick up on the concepts of flintknapping really well. When I finished the point, I gifted it to him as a token of appreciation for letting us pick up flint on his land. He was surprised and ecstatic to receive the point! I made a friend and had a great evening with him.
 The next day we decided to head back to Michigan, but before doing so meet up with Eric Morris of Eric's Rocks and Such. He is a professional rock dealer, mostly selling knapping rock, and is a great guy. You can always get good rock from Eric at a great price. I bought some Horse Creek chert and Cobden flint from him.

Me and Eric.

 Overall, it was a great trip! I got to meet great people and collect some great rock!

Me with all of my new rocks, all 830 pounds!!!