Barry Harrison's Arrowhead Collection

Getting a look at approximately 2,000 native American projectile points—which we'll generally call "arrowheads"—along with assorted tomahawks, spades, hoes, wampum, ornaments and hammer stones is exciting, especially when all of these articles were gathered within 30 miles of Benton.

Barry Harrison, normally seen working at the Benton Post Office, showed us his collection the other night. He learned the art of locating native American artifacts from some very good teachers: his grandfather, J. C. Knouse, from Carnigie Knouse, who had an extensive collection, and from his father, Gayle, a former Benton Chief of Police.

Barry Harrison, Stillwater. Barry is wearing an Indian ornament that he found locally and, in his left ear, an arrowhead. The arrowhead in his ear is the only arrowhead that is not real. A gift from his son, the earring symbolizes his extensive collection.

Have you ever wondered how ancient man made stone tools and weapons by using primitive tools and how they worked stone and shaped it into knives, arrowheads, and spears?

Barry Harrison's interest in the Native American way of life was sparked at the age of five by walking in the newly plowed fields and along the banks of Fishing Creek in search of arrowheads and other artifacts, objects that the Indians had fashioned with their own hands. Barry soon learned that the early Indians may have hunted a lot along the banks of Fishing Creek, but they lived on "high ground," on knolls where they could see for a considerable distance. We are bound to secrecy about where Barry considers the best hunting grounds for native American artifacts, but we'll give you a clue that the spot is close to Benton Borough and not on flat ground.

Arrowheads were formed when a flintknapper transformed a shapeless hunk of flint into a beautiful flint-point by using primitive tools. The arrowheads that Barry considered his best were all razor sharp, and all but a very few originated in this area. One ceremonial arrowhead had apparently never been used and was almost white in color. Flint knapping must be one of the oldest professions. It is hard to believe that the primitive technology used by our ancestors so long ago crafted so many perfectly beautiful arrowheads.

One ceremonial arrowhead had apparently never been used and was almost white in color.

Barry remembers Bubb Laubach telling about a local flint mine. Dayne Kline independently recalled as a boy seeing the flint as he walked along the Bloomsburg and Sullivan Railroad line north of Orangeville. As Dayne remembers the location, the Indians mined flint along the side of Orangeville mountain due east from a point approximately between the Orangeville Masonic lodge and the restaurant Digger's Diversion.

One aspect of Indians life was their lack of waste. They used bones for tools, animal tendons and muscles for sinew, turtle shells for spoons, and flint for tools. Apparently, if a point broke, they would not discard the piece, but would add new notches and reuse the broken piece for a different purpose.

They used bones for tools, animal tendons and muscles for sinew.

According to people who say they know these things, rocks are almost all in excess of 10 million or more years old and so the question comes down to when it was worked on by a human being. Was it thousands of years ago or more recently or a combination of both? Or, is it brand new? Anything exposed to the elements for any extended period of time will take on telltale signs. Archaeologists have a long name for this process, but we'll just call it "age," or "patination," and/or "mineralization accumulation."

Only a few of the points Barry found in fields have an accumulation of iron oxide and agricultural equipment scarring. Several points showed evidence of dried, decayed and fossilized vegetation.

Pieces found near Fishing Creek were polished and distinctly smoothed. Barry had NO arrowheads that he purchased, so there are none that are sanded or buffed, lapidary tumbled, chemically treated, or coated with any kind of chemical substance.

This Indian cup had a small hole bored in the handle, so that the owner could carry it around his neck.		Indian Cup, possibly hundreds of years old
Indian ornaments. The chain, of course, is modern.		These are pieces of raw or unworked flint. Imagine the hours that it would take to fashion these into working arrowheads.
This is an example of the use of an arrowhead. The tiny arrowhead would be wound around the arrow. Most arrowheads in Barry's collection are larger than this one.		The feathers of the arrow are wound around the other end of the arrow is much the same way.
		The arrowheads are razor sharp. It is not known if the stems on these arrowheads were narrowed as the blade was resharpened or if they were made narrow when they were first constructed.
Most arrowhead collections are not well known by the general public. Collectors like Barry Harrison spend their lifetimes accumulating the Indian artifacts, and frequently the collection eventually gets passed down to succeeding generations or is donated to museums or historical societies. Collector museums and private collections can provide hours of examination of a life now unknown to most of us.