12 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



plements found on the Great Plains have been made from one of 

 the rocks mentioned above, flint usually being most common. This 

 is for the reason that on the Plains, deposits of flint are found 

 more abundantly than any of the other rocks named . 



There are three general regions on the Great Plains where 

 flint occurs in great quantities; namely (1) in the region of the 

 outcrop of the Boone Chert, of Mississippian age, on the outer rim 

 of the Ozark Mountains, (2) in the Pennsylvanian-Permian Flint 

 Hills of Kansas and northern Oklahoma, (3) in the Pennsylvanian 

 area of north-central Texas. 



It is very evident that the Indians used flint obtained from 

 all of these places for he manufacture of implements. In the 

 Ozark region there are present the remains of numerous quarries and 

 pits from which large amounts of flint have been excavated. In 

 Ottawa and Deleware counties, Oklahoma ; Cherokee County, Kan- 

 sas ; and Newton and Jasper counties, Missouri, many of the hills 

 composed of Boone Chert show evidence that during a very long 

 period of time the Indians used the flint for the manufacture of 

 implements. I have personally collected hundreds, of pounds of re- 

 jects, incomplete or broken flint implements in abandoned quarries 

 in Ottawa County. These quarries usually occur along the brow 

 of a low hill, or scrap. The spall, or refuse limestone which has 

 been thrown away at the time the flint nodules were extracted, 

 sometimes for mounds five to ten feet high and hundreds of yards . 

 in length. Workshops are abundant throughout the region. The 

 Bureau of Ethnology at Washington, has made extensive collec- 

 tions from these quarries and a bulletin has been published on the 

 subject. 



The Flint Hills of Kansas and Oklahom.a were also a prolific 

 source of material for implements. The Flint Hills, which stand 

 out as a prominent escarpment, two hundred to three hundred feet 

 above the level of the plains to the east extend northward from 

 Osage County, Oklahoma, across east-central Kansas, nearly as far 

 as the Nebraska State line. The summit of the Flint Hills is made 

 up of several heavy ledges of limestone, containing vast amounts of 

 flint in the form of nodules or concretions. The geologist has named 

 the three most prominent ledges, the Wreford, the Fort Riley- 

 Florence, and the Winfield limestones. As the limestone that 

 made up these hills has been dissolved and eroded by the action 

 of water, the flint being less soluble, has remained behind; and 

 weathering out on the surface for tens of thousands of square 

 miles of country — hence the name of Flint Hills. 



