Fort McCoy ArtiFACT: Projectile point

Photo By Aimee Malone | Projectile point found at Fort McCoy archaeology site  

FORT MCCOY, WI, UNITED STATES

04.23.2021

Story by Aimee Malone 

Fort McCoy Public Affairs Office           

It is important to remember that no one is perfect. Archaeologists, like anyone, can miss something at first glance.

A small scattering of artifacts that was observed atop a hill on the south side of Silver Creek in Training Area B-03 back in 1993. The small number of artifacts at the site were interpreted to be insufficient to merit further investigation or consideration for the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP).

The area was visited again several years later in 1998, and once again, investigators determined that it was unlikely that the area could have any significant research potential. In essence, they asserted that the location was unlikely to yield anything more than small chips of stone left behind after creating or refining stone tools at some point in the last 10,000 years.

The primary task for archaeologists at Fort McCoy for many years was guided by the directives of the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA). The NHPA directs federal land-management agencies to make an effort to identify historic properties within the lands they hold in the public trust.
Fort McCoy, in its role as steward for the American people, has employed hundreds of people over several decades exclusively to satisfy the directives of the NHPA and has surveyed tens of thousands of acres of land. Even with approximately 60,000 acres of land to wander around, sometimes archaeologists end up inadvertently retracing the steps of their predecessors.

That was the case in 2013, when two adjacent archaeological surveys unintentionally intersected the area of the small scatter of artifacts on the hill first identified 20 years earlier. These investigators found artifacts more interesting and numerous than were observed by the two previous investigators combined, which led to a recommendation for additional, more intensive investigations to re-evaluate the site against NRHP eligibility criteria. This recommendation for additional investigations was fulfilled in 2016, and the site yielded far more than a few pieces of chipped stone.

In fact, there were hundreds of pieces of chipped stone, more than a dozen formal tools, ceramic vessel fragments that are likely at least 1,500 years old, a few copper artifacts that could be as much as 6,000 years old, and a stone spear point that is almost certainly more than 8,000 years old.

Investigators also encountered the remains of an old campfire with bits of charcoal that were submitted for radiocarbon dating. Two different samples came back with roughly the same age of 1,000 years ago.

The results of the re-evaluation led investigators to modify the boundary definitions for the site to more accurately reflect the total area that contained artifacts. Investigators also changed the original recommendations for the site area to show that the site is eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places because of its significant research potential.

All archaeological work conducted at Fort McCoy is coordinated by the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.

Visitors and employees are reminded they should not collect artifacts on Fort McCoy or other government lands and leave the digging to the professionals.

Any person who excavates, removes, damages, or otherwise alters or defaces any historic or prehistoric site, artifact, or object of antiquity on Fort McCoy is in violation of federal law.

The discovery of any archaeological artifact should be reported to the Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch at 608-388-8214.

• Date Taken: 04.23.2021
• Date Posted: 04.23.2021 18:53
• Story ID: 394661
• Location: FORT MCCOY, WI, US