XVII. FLINT QUARRIES NEAR CRESCENT, MO. 



A( JOOD example of the ancient chert-working sites of tlie Mis- 

 souri region is found near the village of Crescent, 25 miles 

 west of St. Louis. Superficial examinations were made by 

 Mr. Gerard Fowke in 1915 on behalf of the Bureau of American 

 Ethnology. The follov.ing paragraphs are extracted from his manu- 

 script report: 



The flint-capped ridge, witli its windings and spurs, lias a general direction 



toward tlie southeast. The slopes are everywhere covered 

 [Crescent, Mo., .,, . i., ^ t, . ^, -, 



Quarries! With an immense quantity of debris, partly from the portion 



of the deposit still remaining, but mainly from the accumu- 

 lated flint which has remained wlien the limestone was carried away, and has 

 settled to lower levels. It has been examined as far to the southward as High 

 Hidge, 7 miles from the IMeramec River. Tliroughout this length the hillsides 

 are scarred with pits, the remains of aboriginal quarries. Most of these pits are 

 near the bottom of the deposit. Very few occur along the top of the ridge, and 

 these only in places where erosion has removed most of the upper portion of the 

 material. As a rule the digging was done along the lowest part of the deposit. 



This is because the upper layers, being more influenced by 

 [The Pittings] Weathering, are less suital)Ie for making iiiii)leiiients. The 



most exposed portions are porous from the weathering out of 

 fossils and are also much checked and seamed so that they easily shatter. At 

 the extreme bottom of the series there is a foot or more of very fine-grained, 

 compact stone, which has the texture, color, and chipping quality of chalcedony, 

 and it was this which was most sought. Judging from the amount of waste iu 

 the form of spalls and blocks covering the hillsides below, a vast quantity of the 

 chert was removed and thrown aside in order to reach that which had desirable 

 flaking qualities. After long exposure most of it resembles chalk, though losing 

 none of its hardness or fineness of grain. It weathers into vjirious red or yel- 

 lowish shades, in some cases, though principally quite white. 



The most remarkable feature about this deposit is its extreme thickness. In 

 at least one place it is fully 75 feet from the crest of the ridge to the lowest 

 level of the flint. At this point, too, is the most extensive quarrying; the dig- 

 ging was done at three different levels. The lowest is directly on the surface 

 of a ledge of limestone whose outcrop is several feet thick. After all the wash 

 from above, one quarry here would require at least a thousand yards of earth 

 to fill it to the general slope on either side, and there is no way of ascertaining 

 how far back it may extend under the talus which has slid down into it. 



It is safe to say that the flint sought has been reached and removed over an 



area of not less than a hundred acres in the parts of the 

 [Area of Quarries] country examined; and it may well be that this auKHint is 



doubled in places not yet examined. Nearly all the chipped 

 implements found within 50 miles of St. Louis in any direction are made of the 

 stone from this deposit — at least it looks exactly like it — and no other deposit is 

 now known from which it could have been derived. This observation, of course, 

 does not apply to the spades and hoes made from the Union County (111.) chert, 

 nor to a few of the very long, slender implements or ceremonials, occasionally 

 found which are brought from some other region. 



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