TWO FROM THE SAND FIELD	Dick Keller
	Cayuga, Indiana

     Located in west-central Indiana, Parke County is home to over half of Indiana's world-famous wood covered bridges. There are 32 of these structures still standing in Parke County, with 21 of them still open to traffic. Most of these bridges were built from the 1850s through the 1880s and quite a few more have been lost over the years from flooding and fire. Seven have been lost since I graduated from high school. With the Wabash River forming the western boundary, numerous creeks and tributaries flowing throughout, plus three state parks, any visitor to this area will be pleased with the natural rugged beauty that is Parke County, Indiana. But I digress.

I grew up in Montezuma, Indiana, and some of my fondest memories are of being a young boy spending long summer days with my buddies at the old swimming holes under Leatherwood Creek covered bridge east of town and Sugar Creek covered bridge near West Union. I also remember that my brother, Bob, and I sometimes found arrowheads as we crossed plowed fields on the way to the old swimming holes or to the woods to collect morel mushrooms in late April.

It was easy for me to let my imagination roam as I walked though the woods hunting those yellow sponge mushrooms. I could understand why the native Indians had lived here and how they must have hated to leave. I never realized back then that these people had been here for many thousands of years.

We know from the earliest journals of the French Jesuits and British explorers that what we know as present day Parke County was inhabited predominately by the Wea and Piankashaw tribes with some Kickapoo villages also present. All three of these were Algonquain-speaking tribes and were branches of the great Miami confederation, and they were close allies of the Shawnee tribes to the south.

Over the next 150 years these Indians were pushed, pressured and cheated by the French, English and finally the Americans until on August 27, 1804, the United States received title to all their lands laying between the Ohio and Wabash rivers. By the spring of 1812, the last of these people left the Wabash and joined forces with the Potawatomi, Ottawa and Chippewa in the Illinois territory.

In 1975, I learned that a large section of my favorite mushroom-hunting woods near Montezuma was being logged and cleared for farming. I hated to see it go, but with the loss also came an opportunity. I waited and kept watch on this field until March of 1977, when it was finally plowed. Because it had been raining rather hard, it was obviously too muddy to hunt. It was a few days later on a Saturday morning when Dick Bell and I first walked into this field with our fingers crossed.

I wasn't disappointed. Near the northern end of the field, I spotted a beautiful Adena-type spear point lying fully exposed. It was made from a greenish-tan chert and measures an impressive 5 1/4 inches in length. Even though this site is now heavily hunted by some of my collector friends, I continue to hunt it whenever I can. I did find some nice Woodland period points, but it would be four more years before I got my next big thrill.

April 17, 1981, was Good Friday and a paid holiday for me. My twin sons, Brad and Brian, were also off from school that day, so we decided to make a combination arrowhead/mushroom hunting day of it. As I drove down the gravel road, I saw that the site had been plowed and well washed down. I told my boys we would walk the field then enter the woods to mushroom hunt. With our sacks tucked into our back pockets, we started walking. About one hundred yards into the field I walked up on a Turkey Tail. It was lying flat on top of the ground with only the tip of the point covered by dirt. I didn't even know if it had a tip. I asked the boys to wish me luck as I bent down and picked it up. It did have a tip and was beautiful! It was made from gray Harrison County hornstone. It measures 4 7/8 inches in length. By the way, we never did get to hunt mushrooms that day.  

I am sure hundreds if not thousands of fine artifacts have been found in Parke County over the years and that most are now scattered throughout the Midwest in numerous collections. If anyone would be kind enough to tell me about his favorite Parke County, Indiana, piece, you can drop me a line at P.O. Box 274 Cayuga, Indiana 47928. Better yet, write something for our journal so that we can all enjoy it.

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© 1990 C.S.A.S.I. Last modified:
December 8 2004