Why you can't find Arrowheads! (short version)

[@MountainJohn]

DISCLAIMER: PLEASE WATCH THE LONG VERSION TOO! YES ARROWHEADS HAVE BEEN FOUND IN EVERY STATE. HOWEVER, COMPARED TO THE MIDWEST, THERE ARE NONE. 1 Arrowhead for every 5000 is not even a tiny fraction. You are unlikely to find them hence they are a red state.

[@paulbrandon5735]

I had a cousin back in Indiana who would only look in the dead of winter, when the local Salamonie, Huntington and Mississinewa reservoirs were empty. He would scour the mud flats along the original river bottom. The guy would find hundreds each year. His collection numbered into the thousands of points. This was the land of the Miami and later Shawnee tribes, but the Mississippians well before them. The same guy moved west, but only found some pot shards. Your analysis is spot on. Great video.

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

I live in Washington state and while i haven't actually looked for arrowheads ive watced videos of people back east finding them easily and wondered why i haven't seen any, now i know!.

[@MountainJohn]

90% of videos online are in Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana etc

[@nelsonx5326]

Found a nice Clovis arrowhead in Virginia. Found a cert grinding stone in New York City in a pile of dirt from an energy company digging in the street.

[@MountainJohn]

For Clovis arrowheads, 95% of this map would be red. If truly it is a clovis, you really have been blessed to find that. This map is just "arrowheads in general" but finding a clovis is from societies that did not use agriculture and therefore very few clovis were ever made compared to e.g the cahokia triangle. Thank you for watching and I hope you thoughroughly enjoy that clovis you found! What is a cert?

[@indenial3340]

There's a farmers field in Virginia at the bottom of a hill with a creek running thru. When he plowed the field and it rained later, my buddy and I walked the field and filled our pockets with arrowheads in less than a half hour

[@swcheshier61]

I hope you don’t let the negative comments discourage you. I understand that this is generally how it is. And comparatively way more are in the areas you say. Doesn’t mean there are none in the other areas, just way less likely to find. Thank you for the info. I enjoyed your video. Keep up the good work.

[@MountainJohn]

Thank you, well I explained in the pinned comment that I've found arrowheads in red states and I open the video on the "long version" also on youtube by stating that yes there are arrowheads in each state as a disclaimer.

[@66bigbuds]

We find thousands of arrow heads in Michigan. The museums are full of them. The ancient ones did stay by water. But Michigan Wisconsin and Minnesota have water everywhere. So they are spread out more.

[@peggynulsen1365]

I can attest to the difficulty of finding relics in the Great Basin, but they do exist and waundering around the desert looking is the most fun of all. Lots of Nature to appreciate on the journey. I watch all you guys in the East and love seeing the great saves you bring home. Happy hnting to all.

[@jpavlvs]

In 1942 my dad did training in Tennessee. He and the company he was in found a lot of arrowheads. There was this one guy who went around and would beg for guys to give him one or two. Later they found that guy had a box full of arrowheads under his rack. I still have the arrowheads he found and kept.

[@thedeergarden3964]

I live in Duvall, WA and was a little depressed to see it on the Don’t Bother list. But I do happen to live in an area where there are known historical native villages. One area in particular is a little known site near the Tolt reservoir water treatment facility. The trail to it has almost disappeared but the site was a largish archaeological dig now closed up and fenced. What’s hopeful about the site is that this particular village was apparently making arrowheads in large quantities for trading with other villages along the Tolt and Snoqualmie Rivers. So even though some states have lower chances of finding points I think there are still opportunities if such locations can be found through some research.

[@raenman64]

Great, informative video. As a kid from Florida, I’d go visit my Grandparents every summer for a month. My uncle would take me artifact hunting along the river bottoms of the Ohio river. I found quite a bit. I never thought to look in Florida as I lived in Jacksonville & just thought that there were none here. Flash forward 45 years and I live on the East coast in central Florida. I just recently discovered some KZbin videos about finding quite a few here in central Florida. Granted, a lot are found by digging on private property but it leads me to believe that there are a lot more than I thought even a short couple of months ago. Thanks for the video, you got a new sub!

[@earlunderwoodjr.6766]

The Great Lakes region was populated by many native tribes. Most communities were located near water. Abundant supplies of fish, and food were available.

[@MountainJohn]

Yes, and therefore did not need to use as many arrowheads because 1. lacked knappable stone and 2. did not need arrowheads to hunt fish, clams and other aquatic life. Lots of fishing weights can be found around that area though. Thanks for watching :)

[@dznnf7]

I live in the G.L. region of NY, and have casually found dozens of points over the years. A guy I know searches the floodplains of the Genesee River 50-100 miles south of the lake and finds hundreds of them, often large complete points and tools .@@MountainJohn

[@repetemyname842]

@@MountainJohn : Theres all kinds of chert, chalcedony and agate near the Great Lakes, I have a small collection of points and know of people with excellent collections, all found in WI. Im more of an agate hunter but do get very lucky and stumble across a point now and then.

[@DestinyLabMusic]

I grew up in Oregon and Idaho and Idaho and there are plenty of places you can find arrow heads so I am not sure why that map says none are here.

[@MountainJohn]

The long version talks about it. What it means is, none compared to Midwest and deepsouth. Oregon and Idaho do have obsidian and sometimes agate and jasper. I personally myself have found them. Specifically along the columbia and snake rivers. Oregon is a darker orange and says "Get off road tires" meaning, be prepared to go into the desert and maybe find nothing. Arrowhead hunting offroad in idaho and oregon is a different ballpark than tripping off your front porch in Missouri and landing on a pile accidentally. Thanks for watching fellow PNWer!

[@DestinyLabMusic]

@@MountainJohn ahh ok yes they makes sense! It truly is amazing how many arrowheads the ancients made!

[@IndigenousRelicSearch]

Nice video dude!! One thing I will say: their are A LOT of different cultures and time periods these points descend from. Ive personally found a Madison Triangle & a Mackorkle Bifurcate virtually on top of each other. This is significant because these two points are very close to 10000 years apart.

[@brianmcgill3805]

I live in West Virginia and it's polluted with arrowheads. Along the Ohio River and its tributaries

[@MountainJohn]

Thats why its yellow. Its good... worth your time... but Missouri will always boast more impressive quantities

[@davidmurray9844]

Excellent content. Thank you for sharing.

[@MountainJohn]

Thank you David. I appreciate your support :)

[@MonaBurton-l4e]

you just made me feel a heck of a lot better. I spent my entire life looking for them but I live in Washington state so I found very few and tonight I just realize that everything you said is 100% true thank you you made me feel a lot better it’s not my lackof looking it’s the lack of them in certain areas

[@MountainJohn]

I live in WA too. Best places are east side. Wenatchee hills and columbia river. Good luck out there!

[@windfall331]

I have found several arrow heads and or fragments in Washington State. Most in the San Juan Islands but one high in the North Cascades.

[@MountainJohn]

That is because there is chert up by those cretaceous and jurassic sediments. However, most of the state is red. Good luck hunting! :)

[@Idrinklight44]

I grew up going to Cahokia, first grade field trip. 53 now and have been 20-30.

[@michelle8190]

My family has farm land in Tennessee. We used to find arrow heads after the soil was tilled. Since the no till farming we don’t find as many. But I always thought it was weird there were so many different kinds and colors in the same 300 acres. It makes me think who lived there were more agriculture focused and did traded food for arrowheads. Which prehistoric American culture was the Costco of arrowheads?

[@irvingskyzanitzy3081]

all of them...they did use them for trade...i believe that most preforms are for trade...

[@9wire]

There are plenty of people in most all the continental states that find numbers of points quite often. It’s all about knowing when where and how to look. I live in Ms and have a fairly large collection. Hell, I’ve picked up over 400 just in my yard…But…there are lots of people here and everywhere that look hard for years before finding one or they give up and never find one. Some people just never understand where to look and where not to.. There are honey holes in most every state, you just have to put in the time and work to find them..

[@MountainJohn]

Everything you said is correct. But in WA there might be 20 honey holes, while in MO the whole damn state is a honey hole. Thats really what this videos means. The title I admit is a bit baitey.

[@the_neanderthal09]

great video, this gives me hope for finding stone artifacts in tennessee

[@MountainJohn]

They are absolutely out there! Good luck fellow Neanderthal!

[@the_neanderthal09]

@@MountainJohn thanks man nice to hear from another skilled hominin!

[@ggolds5]

Interesting information, but sad. I did find an arrowhead in Connecticut where I live. Recently a town over, a bridge was being built and some artifacts discovered. The building was stopped and archeologists entered the area. An entire section was closed off and over 10,000 rare and never known indian tribe artifacts, weapons, arrowheads, tools were dug. One of the single largest and rarest of all archeological finds in the US. Right in Connecticut. Just wondering your thoughts on that since you have RED as a state of not even to look?. My father in law lives in Western Mass. He finds arrowheads all over his property. There was an entire fossil show from finds across CT and MA. Thousands of dinosaur bones, horns, etc. Including indian artifacts. Come here and let's do some searching!.

[@MountainJohn]

The reason I have CT and MA as red is because a few reasons. 1. Private property and human development. Unless you're the property owner or you are an excavator for the state, you're unlikely to find land that is suitable for arrowhead hunting. 2. Rich Northern Coastal Biome. CT and MA have harsher winters than the south interior and were not the most suitable for large scale agriculture needed to fund the population growth or density required for substantial populations, and as you know, more mouths = more hunting. More hunting = more lost arrowheads. While you do have lush forests and possibility for arrowheads to be buried, CT and MA also were too cold and covered in glaciers for a long part of history, completely inaccessible to ancient peoples. This made it a shorter window in which artifacts were being made. Combine both these factors with the fact that the coast provided shellfish, fish, crustaceans, mollusks, seals etc etc which did not use flint or stone tools to hunt or gather, they would be hunting significantly less on top of that. 3. There may be hunter gatherer groups of which you may find arrowheads in specific locations, specifically when people are excavating for the state or a large private operation, however... if you creek walk the state, is 5000x more likely to find arrowheads in the green regions of the map for every 1 arrowhead you find in CT - MA. While there are many WA and OR arrowhead collections you can find online, even my wife finding an arrowhead in Washington, its infinitely more rare and unlikely than finding them in the areas listed on the map. Thank you for inviting me to hunt with you! I am going to be moving to Montana in 3 days and CT is a long ways away. In fact, I won't lie, I've been to 44+ states and CT and MA are on the list of ones I have never stepped foot in. Even been to Alaska and Hawaii. There may be a day when I do have to come to CT to check it off my list. Thank you for watching and I hope this clarified my position :) Happy hunting

[@ggolds5]

@@MountainJohn Very informative. You really do your research. However, there is so much good stuff right here in CT. :) Enjoy.

[@jamesnailor1012]

Its probably because I steelhead fish but I have found dozens of chert points along the river beds of northern California.

[@MountainJohn]

Its likely they are jasper, rhyolite or some other kind of rock as chert is virtually not present in north california. However, if they are chert, it would be an extra interesting artifact as that material likely traveled via canoe many many miles before reaching the tribe that used them. Very cool, thank you for sharing.

[@jamesnailor1012]

Bro we have tons!!! of green, blue, brown radiolarian chert@@MountainJohn

[@dirtflipper1338]

I found quite a few in New Jersey .!

[@eliasfarmer1219]

We had our share of Indians back in the day, I've never found any myself but I've got an arrowhead my father found along the Delaware when he was a kid

[@Enfield-1853]

I live in Virginia since 60. In the 60s and 70s found alot in plowed fields after a rain. Lots of peanuts were being raised then. They came out with a plow called a roto- hoe for cultivating peanuts. It was like a big garden weasel. For then on most of the points would be cut. My grandfather plowed up a soapstone pot in the 60s. The Smithsonian was doing a dig on a river back then. He carried it to them. Someone connected with them put it back together. They wanted it. But, my granfather kept it. I am honored to have it now. Sent pictures to a well known lead archeologist for Cactus Hill site here in Virginia. He said it was about 3600 years old and appeared unused. Pot was found about 15 miles from Cactus Hill Site.

[@c2880cag]

My grandpa was a prospector and artifact finder in montana and many dinosaurs bones were found by him . He was very successful if finding a lot of arrow heads in montana . But yes it makes sense to what your saying

[@stephene.robbins6273]

Wisconsin, a few miles west of Cedarburg (just north of Milwaukee), a 7-acre field, after the field is plowed, huge collection found.

[@jamebrooke894]

Northwest Indiana ( grand Kankakee swamp) fined Thebes, Clovis, Fulton Turkey tails, Scottsbluff, tons of madisons, and a few copper rat tail points. Same area Saber Tooth skulls and mammoth tusk. There's a few Mounds around the area also.

[@Dawn-fz5cu]

This makes sense to me. I grew up in Washington state and never found any artifacts despite spending ALOT of time looking. My Grandfather had a few arrowheads he found in Idaho but he was the only one I knoew of that had artifacts. I moved to Texas about 10 years ago and have found quite a bit on our land since living here,

[@KateInTheCity]

This is a great explanation but I wanted to point out one thing that I feel wasn't quite right. You were saying that glaciation caused much of the northern US to be under ice but this is not really true. The Wisconsin Glaciation event that lasted somewhere 100,000 to 11,000 years ago covered just about all of Canada and came down into Illinois and Pennsylvania in the Eastern US but barely reached into the western US at all. So there were still forests in the NW US during that time.

[@MountainJohn]

While this is true and the longer explanation, I strongly advise you to check out my Long Version. I explain in that version that when the glaciers melted, they released floods and glacial tills which could be hundreds of feet burying or covering any artifacts that could have been there. On top of that, during the migration from Alaska from Beringia south, the glaciers would have predetermined what areas people have longer settlement in, so even if the glaciers were receding 20,000 years ago, it still would have shaped where the first settlements were, and as you know today, the first cities formed in the 1700s in America tend to be the largest metropolis now with the most modern, soon to be artifacts lol. But yes, great sight you got there and you are correct.

[@ExploringCabinsandMines]

What on earth kind of camera are u using John? Flintstones?

[@MountainJohn]

the i-stone 5000 (BC)

[@seanrobinson6407]

Found a few as a kid here on the East end of Long Island. Also paint pots. This is where the Shinnecock nation inhabited. There is a reservation in Southampton, but they lived all along the East End area of Long Island and what became the Hamptons before Europeans came. Now it is too suburbanized and a wealthy resort area, so you probably will never find any, but it was still fairly rural when I was young and I'd clam and fish and pick them up and farm tilling and gardening would uncover them.

[@maryland9987]

Arrowheads can be found all over Maryland-including Baltimore County, where I live-miles from the nearest river/water body.

[@DoomCast]

We have arrowheads here in Massachusetts

[@MountainJohn]

Yes, every state has arrowheads. In my long version which can also be found on YT. I explain that point, however comparing to Missouri and other states near cahokia. The quantity in MA is 1 per every 5000 in the midwest which I feel is safe to make such a broad statement. Thank you for your input and thank you for watching :)

[@kerry4660]

we have arrowheads here in Idaho and Washington,, but they are illegal to look for,, so yeah don't even try

[@MountainJohn]

Lived in WA and Idaho for 14 years... There aint jack compared to the midwest. Plus is illegal to really do anything in WA lol

[@ChrisWilson999]

I live in Florida and have found a few arrow heads. We have both water and high quality chert. I know of places you could find an arrowhead in less than an hour.

[@randallminchew6780]

I live in southern Utah. Arrow heads can and have been found here buts it’s a rare occurrence. We can find pot shards quicker than arrow heads.

[@stephennickerson1631]

Hi I went to grammar school in swanville maine right by swanlake on year we had a drought I was poking around a pile of rocks in the lake I found a couple arrow points and a bigger one a bunch of chips of stone the stone was like green chirt I took them to school the teacher sent them to university of maine so we could learn more more but they disappeared that was 60 years ago

[@MountainJohn]

Huh... I wonder what ever happened to them. Thanks for commenting stephen :)

[@KS-hj6xn]

Pacific coast tribes had salmon and other fish, whales, porpoises, dolphins, seals, sealions, ducks, swans, geese, elk, blacktail deer, black bear, and far enough back mammoths!! Dangerous Brown bears were likely avoided. They were doing plenty of hunting here, but it was a rainforest jungle of giant redwoods, maples, firs, and choked with alder thickets and blackberry brambles and swampy if it wasn't steep.. they had very nice sturdy cedar log canoes. And the west coast rivers are short steep rocky and fast water. Not really navigable for long distances inland by canoe.. the longest was probably the Columbia river but that was treacherous in places also.. all the artifacts are now under all the Columbia river lakes that formed behind the dams. Also there were multiple giant floods from Ancient Lake Missoula that washed down the columbia river basin formed Dry Falls and Moses coolie. Lol

[@MountainJohn]

yes, all of that is true. 80% of their tools though were bone and not chert / flint. the other 20% is chalcedony and jaspers / agates

[@KS-hj6xn]

@MountainJohn I also suspect many locations where they might have had fish traps and easy fishing are below the tide level today.

[@charlesdurham483]

I have found a few over the years in west central Mich, southwest Iowa and south east Nebr but along the Ohio river both sides for about 200 miles seems to be the best area over all My Great Uncle found many around the Boonville Mo area also

[@lelandshanks3590]

You make a good case, but all of them carried a napping kit on them also a biface or tool kit. They had to. Also a bowstring kit as well.

[@MountainJohn]

Well, most of them carried a biface and tool kit, bow strings, hides, clothing, bone needles, awls, scrapers etc etc. This video is only about arrowheads because its directly addressing the absolute mountain of videos of creek walkers finding tons of arrowheads in a day

[@lelandshanks3590]

Check out our artifact show in Tulsa,OK. Indian Nations artifact and fossil show held at the ORU campus.

[@jimfry7444]

We find thousands of them in North Dakota too

[@kenthatfield4287]

You will find a lot of arrowheads in the plains but they're very dispersed because the Buffalo were a ranging animal. And when the arrowhead went into the beast it stayed there until the cleaner of the animal took it out after skinning and butchering. But in the case where they were attacking a Calvary troop such as in the area of the Comanches you might find some arrowheads there. That would be somewhere around southern Texas. And then again you're going to be doing a lot of walking. These arrowheads out west will not be right next to each other that's for sure.

[@123Four-l9w]

Idk wth yor intro was but I clicked on your videos to look for more rock videos. I seen this 1 in san Antonio there is a park named Eisenhower park. 4 years ago living in my vehicle I wen off a old blocked trail drove I a huge bush so I can make a number 2. Right as u lightly spaded the ground not even 1 inch I found a broken arrow head even as a child in boy scouts I never got my arrow badge bc I couldn't find one. I was that kind that always finished last just like now. I wish I could send u san Antonio flint but I can't pay the shipping. If u have a Facebook page I could show u scraps I toss out u properly can use

[@benallen7793]

Middle Tennessee is the cradle of civilization in North America. So much so archeologists compare every other state to Tennessee because of its density. Especially when it comes to paleo (Clovis) point types or early archaic types. No other state even compares. Funny part is they say native Americas crossed the Bering straight/land bridge… where’s the evidence?

[@MountainJohn]

Thats strange someone liked your comment 1 minute after you posted it. The evidence is in the DNA that siberian natives share similar genes to Alaskan and Canadian Natives. Not to mention they shared similar tool technology and their languages sound very similar. What other hypothesis do you propose? They just "appeared"? Tennessee was not the cradle of civilization in N America. Poverty point, Cahokia and maybe other sites that might have been located in tennessee tend to be considered the center of the indigenous americas but not just tennessee.

[@razablanco3766]

Missouri

[@MountainJohn]

@@razablanco3766 100% correct.

[@zeetty]

This kid's full of baloney. Try a little "research" next time: you know, effort.

[@Idrinklight44]

Missouri!

[@Paleotech1]

Everywhere in MO. I still find them in the City of St Louis.

[@thekat9593]

Arrowheads are everywhere, I found them all over the US, when people hunted, or stood guard they were always making points, so you find them on blown ground, high spots, on the first bench up from river areas that have not flood washed, people have been everywhere and flint was their plastic bottles of the times., but beware, points that were discarded were not picked up by others because the makers troubles are discarded with it, if you pick it up, you get the troubles with it. I leave where I find, the knife river flint of North Dakota was highest prized of all

[@Milkmans_Son]

though I fully admit not having the baseline knowledge required for anything close to a scientific approach, but anecdotally the market doesn't seem to align with this. At least not ebay anyway.

[@MountainJohn]

What does Ebay say? Also watch my long version on this.

[@Milkmans_Son]

@@MountainJohn Ebay says the prices are about the same for an arrowhead found in Idaho as one found in Arkansas. The total number of listings from green states dwarf the others, and probably in about the ratio you mentioned, but oddly the closing prices are about the same.

[@MountainJohn]

​@@Milkmans_Son because people collect "arrowheads" and don't care about where unfortunately. Its like rockhounding. You may find a pretty rare chert in Idaho but because its so abundant in Texas, no one will pay higher for one from Idaho.

[@MountainJohn]

​@@Milkmans_Son OR because people inherit the arrowheads from estate sales, check online to see what "arrowheads" are going for and price match with no clue.

[@D-train69]

This is BS I have found arrow heads in the panhandle of Idaho when I was a child. My mom an dad are still finding them their as well as beads, spear tips and all sorts of artifacts. You can't claim its only on the Mississippi River.

[@MountainJohn]

please watch the long version on my channel. Don't skim

[@jeffhallaran6630]

I thought all the Indians were out west with the cowboys and what not!

[@MountainJohn]

Youre right! Gotta delete this video now. Thanks for the comment

[@user-03-gsa3]

wew laddy

[@raulcavazos7780]

Ehh its was stockpiles for fighting the vikings 😂

[@MountainJohn]

beautiful reference and joke. +50 points lol

[@Wilders53]

East tennessee and southwest Virginia are loaded!!!

[@shawntailor5485]

We have arrowheads in washington . They are paleolithic bird and small game heads mostly . Some fishing heads . Mostly basalt you just have to know what your looking for and not fall for staus quo conjecture . There are also many modern ones that came from oregon through trade. I know of one beatiful clovis spear point found near agate that was confirmed by the Smithsonian.

[@Paleotech1]

Bows and arrows did not exist in paleo North America skippy.

[@charlenepinola4310]

People should not be picking them up and keeping them, just leave them there. It's disrespectful to take our artifacts.take a picture not the arrow head.

[@benallen7793]

Extremely ignorant but hey… everyone’s entitled to their opinion

[@Paleotech1]

Bullshit. No disrespect applies. Keep pick up all you see!

[@Paleotech1]

And what do you mean by “our arrowheads”? They do not belong to you or natives princess.