XIX. CHERT QUARRIES OF THE GREAT PLAINS 



THE linnter tribes of the Great Plains region — the followers 

 of the now vanished herds of bulfalo — depended largely 

 on the brittle varieties of stone for their implements and 

 weapons, and the region furnishes vast numbers of all types of 

 these. The hunter was in evidence rather than the cultivator of the 

 soil, but agricultural implements are widely distributed along the 

 fertile valleys tributary to the Mississippi on the west. Vast 

 numbers of chipped implements, especially knives, scrapers, and 

 projectile points, are scattered over the country and not infrequently 

 are recovered from cache deposits where placed possibly as offer- 

 ings to the gods of the chase. The sources of the several varieties 

 of chert have been imperfectly explored. On the eastern bordei* 

 they extend in a wide belt from north to south through Iowa, 

 eastern Nebraska, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, asso- 

 ciated always with the carboniferous formations. Farther west the 

 cretaceous quartzites afford a supply of excellent material for im- 

 plements, and extensive quarries have been located in Wyoming. 



Oklahoma 



A single typical example of the (juarries of the eastern margin 

 of the great plains area may be described in some detail, although 

 it is observed that the}' corres})ond closely in all important respects 

 with the quarries of massive Hint elsewhere. A somewhat detailed 

 account of this group was published by the present writer in Bul- 

 letin 21 of the Bureau of American Ethnology (1894). On what 

 was formerly laiown as the Peoria Reservation, now included in 

 OttaAva County. Okla., extensive quarries of a whitish massive chert 

 are located. These were originally known as Spanish diggings and 

 were first reported to the Geological Survey as flint quarries by 

 Prof. W. P. Jenney. who was engaged in 1891 in 

 i\nn"s*' ' ''*^°'^ ^^^^ study of the lead mines of the Joplin region. 

 They are located about 7 miles northwest of Seneca, 

 Mo., and soine 10 miles southeast of Baxter Springs, Kans. 

 At an early date the whites learned of the ancient diggings and 

 work was undertaken by various parties and at long intervals with 



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