First man may have been in valley 9,000 years ago

The first men known to visit this part of Wisconsin probably were those lured by the "rock gold" called quartzite located near Hixton in Jackson County. The material was used to make tools and spear points by Paleo-Indians during trips through the region. The hill, now known as Silver Mound, was mistakenly named by early Frenchmen who believed the Indians came here to mine silver.

     In the year 7430 BC, first known inhabitants in this area spent several cool fall days and nights near Hixton in present Jackson County quarrying an unusual form of quartzite used for spear points which would one day link them to another early human beings from Ohio to the western part of the county.
     What they wore, their routes and their numbers are not known and may never be.
     However, what is known is that these so-called Paleo-Indians were food gatherers and hunters and probably pursued herds of large game moving northward into new ice free areas during the warming stage of the last great ice age.

Discovered mound

     It was during hunting excursions that early Indians came across what is known today as Silver Mount, a site where earliest discoveries of the presence of these people has been found in this part of the state.
     Indians probably discovered quality quartzite while pursuing animals near the mound and found a cave they then used for protection.
     An outcropping of quartzite created by hardening of material pushed from the inner core of the earth years ago was found near the rock shelter. These early Indians recognized its value as a bartering item with other Indians and Hixton quartzite became distributed among the Paleo-Indians.
     Traces of their work and that discovered in other parts of the country show these people to have been skilled craftsmen who long before entering Wisconsin had developed a common habit of perfecting a particular kind of stone spear-point known today as the fluted point.
     Scraps of waste material are scattered about the mound and give evidence the early visitors chipped away bits of the quartzite to make it into a size and shape they could take with them on their travels.
     They were a transient people, probably moving with the seasons. No evidence has been found that shows a settlement or any Indian burial places. Their mode of travel is unknown, but like woodland Indians they probably made their way on foot.
     Quartzite blanks, a hand-axe-like form of portable raw material, was made into finished tools as they needed them. This was probably done near their permanent area during the colder months.
     These "flint-knappers" were designated by the early Indians and through the years developed a keen eye and skill at creating fluted points by removal of a long flake from either surface, leaving hollowed channel scars known as flutes.
     his appearance was much like that of men visiting the quartzite area today. He walked straight with no ape-like features of his ancestors who made their way to this country from Asia.

Hands sure, steady

     His hands were sure and steady as he powered large hammerstones to chip away pieces he did not want. He made spear points which would be used by hunters among his people in their pursuit of the large mastodon creatures which provided food and skins for shelter.
     If the spears were not made of equal balance with finely honed edges, hunters would be unable to pierce the hard skin and layers of muscle protecting the animal. The spears had to penetrate vital parts of these elephant like mammals for quick kills. Otherwise, the hunters would have to wait days for the mastodon to bleed to death from wounds or it would escape.
     The "knapper" spent hours preparing fluted spears, knocking away flakes with hard, steady chops of the hammerstone. Then as he neared the sharp edge he was seeking, the work became more fine until at last he created the exact point desired.
     Although his knowledge was limited to his own experience, he did realize what type of point had worked best during the years his people had hunted. Artifacts to be found later, some in skeletons of huge mammoths, indicated this early man know the weaknesses of the animals they stalked and had developed their own set of tactics in slaying the creatures.

Identical styles

     These men, some of the earliest in the New World, left behind broken and exhausted projectile points at Silver Mound. Their tools were made in styles nearly identical to those which tipped spears of the Paleo-Indians of the great plains.
     Cultures which take their names from "Clovis" and "Folsom" N.M.: "Hell Gap," Wyo.; "Alberta," Canada, and "Scottsbluff," Neb., are but a few of the early peoples whose relatives must have visited Silver Mound.
     That peoples of these early days traded over great distances is evident by types of worn-out tools left at Silver Mound, for these are made not just of local quartzite, but sometimes of flint from as far away as South Dakota and Ohio.
     These were an active, wandering people, and their antiquity has been confirmed through modern radio chemistry which has revealed the earliest date known in Wisconsin.
     The significance of the deep rock-shelter unearthed at Silver Mound is that of association with fire. Bits of wood -- pine and white oak -- once burned here as a campfire at about the same time the stoneworker left behind chips of quartzite and broken and battered hammers.

Cooler period

     The bits of charred wood were of radio carbon dated to about 9400 years ago. It is a small wonder a fire might be build in the shelter at that time, for this was a period in which glaciers were still retreating from areas of northern and eastern Wisconsin.
     Since later Indians never made spear points in this manner, the fluted point has become the "trademark" of the Paleo-Indian. In many parts of the American West flute points have since been found in rib cages of long extinct animals such as the giant bison and mammoth.
     Several thousand years later, a second and larger group of Paleo-Indians moved swiftly across the face of this country. They also found quartzite at Silver Mound. They quarried selectively, taking only the best and most colorful materials with which to practice their art.
     Although the artifacts are mute stones, they are today collectively more eloquent than words in their testimony of a migratory race that paused momentarily in the march of time to be the first to lay their mark on Silver Mound.

Other chippings

     In the five thousand years that have passed, many more-recent groups of Indians, including several archaic and woodland cultures, followed examples of their forbearers and drew upon Silver Mound quartzite. As a result, chippings are spread over acres around the mound.
     During these years great shifts have come to this area such as post-glacial lake changes, development of deciduous hardwoods in the southern part of the area and coniferous in the far north and various mixtures in between.
     The area when the Paleo-Indian hunted large mammoths with spears dipped with a specialized form of large fluted pointed chipped from Hixton quartzite was ending. The large deer and barren ground caribou were now extinct.
     The climate was warming, lake levels were rising and great spruce forests were common.

Different spears

These are some spear points archeologists have unearthed at Silver Mound in Jackson County. Researchers believe they are remnants of the Paleo-Indian culture which was present in Wisconsin. Radio-carbon dating of materials from campfires goes back 9,000 years.

     Aqua-Plano Indians who followed developed spear points that were relatively short and broad-leaf shaped, forms with bases thinned by chipping superficially to appear buffed. Indian hunters who used these spear points could very well have been descendants of the earlier Paleo-Indians.
     By about 4000 BC, the culture of the Aqua-Plano Indians and their contemporaries had changed or had been superceded by early archaic culture. The Indians were still hunters as they used lanceolate spear points of chipped flint, although without parallel flaking. They also used side-notched spear points.

Added tools

     As the climate continued to warm about the year 3,000 BC, the Indian was developing more tools, including those used for grinding. Indians were using spear throwers with polished stone weights called banner stones. They added scraping tools and were living in wigwams with frameworks of saplings covered by skin or bark.
     Then followed the era of the Copper Indians in the Great Lakes area. They developed use of copper for utensils and in the year 1,000 BC, the archaic culture adopted religious ideas manifested by elaborate burial practices.
     In the next 1,000 years, the manufacture of clay potter appeared.

First agriculture

Recent archeologic diggings at Silver Mound near Hixton have turned up bits of Chippings which may have been made 9,000 years ago when Paleo-Indians stopped to make tools and spearheads. These were unearthed by a research group from Oshkosh.

     About the year 1 of the common era, the Hopewell Indian culture reached this area and was based on corn agriculture. These Indians moved in from the Ohio and Illinois River valleys.
     The late Woodland period of about 800 AD brought development of more pottery, tobacco pipes, bows and arrows, needles and weaving tools, wigwams or houses of pole frame covered with animal skins or bark from trees and tightly woven.
     People of the period from 700 to 1600 shared a common culture and combined hunting and fishing with a primitive agriculture. The Effigy Mound People and the Peninsular Woodland tribes lived along the shores of Lake Michigan. It is presumed they were ancestors of some of the Wisconsin tribes of historic times -- the Menominee, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Chippewa and possibly Sauk and Fox, all belonging to the Algonkian language group. Lake Winnebago culture is another recognized with the later woodland people.
     The Chippewa ranged mainly north of the Lakes of Huron and Superior, were primarily a hunting people and had not adopted to agriculture because of land conditions.
     The Chippewa had refined the canoe and moved by water. Unlike other tribes, they were not a sedentary people but a nomadic tribe which usually traveled in small groups.
     Thus, the culture of the Chippewa was more adapted to requirements of fur trading, soon to be developed by early French and English visitors to this area.

--Arnie Hoffman

Extracted from the Eau Claire Leader Telegram
Special Publication, Our Story 'The Chippewa Valley and Beyond', published 1976
Used with permission.