Tuesday, June 15, 2010

A VERY Successful Hunting Trip!!!



Our property here in southern Colorado lies directly on the olde Santa Fe Trail, in fact, the gallery lies on the exact spot the Olde Madrid Commissary stood in the 1860s. I have very much enjoyed, over the years, looking around the yard for little treasures~ I have found Indian head pennies, clay marbles, and heads and bits from early china and bisque dollys. One of my favorite pastimes tho, each spring, is to go up to the top of the property and look for arrowheads, as it was a known Indian settlement.

While I was feeding Luke his bottle on Saturday, Tressa came over and says 'Hey Mom~ is THAT what I think it is???' as she bent over and picked up a little pink quartz arrowhead......I said~ yep, sure is! To that she squealed with delight and insisted that we go a hunting on Sunday.... and WHAT a hunt it was!

We walked around a little, I remembered the shovel, in case we came across any rattlers, but forgot my glasses, so I couldn't see a thing. I found a nice chunk of moss agate, that was most likely a piece of one, as that would have been a stone the Indians traded for....most of the natural rock around here is sandstone. Anyways, she had ambled off, so I called for her and once she was within yelling distance, I told her to come down a little draw, and you guessed it, I herd the same..."Could this be?????" and what sounded like a stampede coming at me, and just look at the wonderful spear point she found! We have a whole little jar of arrowheads we have found here, but this is the first spear point, so we both were elated!

As we walked home, my son Josh appeared at the top of the hill behind the house, and this is where it got really interesting. As you can see, we have very rocky terrain here, perfect for rattlesnakes, so I do not let the children just mosey about up on the hill...but it was morning, and he was sitting up on the big rock there, where the arrow is, enjoying the view~ so I told him he could sit a while, then come back home. You can see the top of the garden shed at the bottom of the picture~ its just right behind the house.......well, by the time my olde decrepit self got back and sat down in my chair, both he and Tressa came zooming in the house like aliens had finally landed.....screaming and yelling so back up the hill I raced with them...cause Josh looked down where he was sitting, and low & behold!!!!


Look at what was carved into the rock! Can you believe it? We have walked by this rock the entire 10 years we have lived here! There is even a solar light my husband put in the little cave to light the whole big thing up at night....and we never saw the man standing there.



The carving is olde, there are lichens growing within the lines...He has spiky hair (feathers perhaps), what looks to be a shawl ties around his shoulders, and you can see one arm there. Just absolutely fascinating! There were Kiowa, Arapaho, Comanche & Cheyenne Indians in our area, so I will be taking this picture to the archeology museum in town, to see what they think when I get caught up.


See how close this is to the house? Its amazing what you can see, if you just slow down and take a peek!

6 comments:

Finegan Antiques said...

OMG what a magical day! How special indeed. Such treasures are to be found if one takes the time to see. Please let us know what you find out about the drawing.
Thanks for sharing. How fun!

Donna

Finegan Antiques said...

P.S.

Your children are adorable. You are truly blessed my friend.

Donna

Rachael Kinnison said...

I will Donna~ thankyou so much for stopping by~ I still cant believe it! He has been spying on us this whole time, sneeky fellow
xoxoxo rachael

Mouse Droppings Folk Art said...

I am coming to your place...I was just dinosaur bone hunting in Drumheller a day ago...my favorite past time is looking for artifacts...lucky you to live in such a rich area so full of history. Susan

Heather said...

Wow! That is AMAZING! It is so thrilling to think about the history of the places we live in. How fascinating that you live on that trail. I live in the midst of the Creek Nation....in an area that isnt too over-run. Perhaps I'll get inspired to go hunt arrow heads too...you found some great ones!

Carole said...

This is the most fascinating story. I just called my husband over to show him and read to him about finding the drawing and spearhead. I can not believe it was there for 10 years and no one ever noticed. What was different that day? Thank you for telling us all about it and I can't wait to hear what you find out tomorrow.
Carole