File:Image from page 882 of "Bulletin" (1901).jpg

English: Title: Bulletin

Identifier: bulletin3011907smit Year: 1901 (1900s) Authors: Smithsonian Institution. Bureau of American Ethnology Subjects: Ethnology Publisher: Washington : G. P. O. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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Text Appearing Before Image: BULL. 30] MINES AND QUARRIES 865 tained from exposures in the bluffs, by the Hopi Indians, and there is historical tes- timony that it was thus procured for pottery-burning in former times. Iron oxides were extensively mined by some tribes, as is illustrated in an iron mine re- cently opened in Franklin co., Mo., where deep, sinuous galleries had been exca- vated in the ore body for the purpose of obtaining the red and yellow oxides for paint (Holmes).

Text Appearing After Image: Section of paint Mine in a bed of iron Ore, m<ssouri. OF EXCAVATIONS ABOUT 20 FT. (holMEs) The quarrying of stone f(jr the manu- facture of implements, utensils, and orna- ments was one of the great industries of the native tribes. Ancient excavations, surrounded by the debris of implement- making, are of common occurrence in the United States. Flint (q. v.) and other varieties of stone sufficiently brittle to be shaped by the fracture ])rocesses were especially sought, but soapstone, mica, and turquoise were also quarried. The flinty rocks include chert (usually called flint), novaculite, quartz, cjuartzite, jas- per, argiliite, rhyolite, and obsidian (q. v.). The best known flint quarries are those on Flint Ridge, l^icking co., Ohio; at Mill Creek, Union co., 111., and in the vicinity of Hot Springs, Ark. Many others have been located, and doubtless still others remain undiscov- ered in the forests and mountains. At Fhnt Ridge extensive beds of richly colored flint of excellent quality occur, forming the summit of the fiattish ridge. The ancient pittings cover hundreds of acres, and in numerous cases are still open to a depth of from 10 to 20 ft. About the pits are ridges and heaps of •debris and many shop sites where the implement forms were roughed out, and masses of fractured flint and fiakage, as well as cf)untless hammerstones used in the shaping operations (see Stone-work-). The flint body was first uncovered, prob- ably with the aid of stone, antler, and wooden tools, and then broken up with heavy stone hammers, aided by the ap- plication of heat. Similar quarries occur in Coshocton co., as well as in other parts Bull. 30—05 55 of Ohio, and in West Virginia, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. The quarries in Arkansas are perhaps even more ex- tensive than those in Ohio, the stone in the best known examples being a fine- grained variety of chert known as novacu- lite (q. V.), which occurs in beds of great thickness and undetermined extent. The phenomena of the quarries correspond closely with those of Flint Ridge (Holmes). Similar quarries of chert are found at many points in Missouri and Indian Territory (Holmes). The great grouj) of quarries found in the vicinity iif Mill Creek, 111., presents superfi- cial indications corresponding closely with those of the Ohio and Arkansas (juarries, but the stona obtained was a gray flint, which occurs in the form of nodular and lenticular masses, mostly of irregular outline. These concretions were well suited to the manufacture of tlie large flaked implements—spades, lioes, knives, and spearheads—found dis- tributed over a vast area in the middle Mississippi valley. The original pittings, excavated in the compact deposits of calcareous clay and sand in which the nodules are embedded, often reached a depth of 25 ft or more. A rude stone pick was used in excavating, and stone as well as antler hammers were employed in the flaking work (Phillips). See Flint. Quarries of quartzite (q. v.) occur in Wyoming (Dorsey); of argiliite (q. v.) in Bucks co.. Pa. (Mercer); of jasper (q. V.) in the same county (Mercer); and of rhyolite (q. v. )in Adamsco. (Holmes). Diffenng in type from the preceding are the extensive quarries on Piney branch of Rock cr., in the suburbs of Washing- ton, D. C. Here quartzite bowlders were quarried from the Cretaceous bluffs for the manufacture of flaked implements (Holmes). See Quartzite.

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