ARTIFACT COLLECTIONS PRESERVE PIECES OF HISTORY

To the uninitiated observer, there was nothing unusual about the flat and sometimes pointed pieces of rock secured in the glass display cases.

But to the exhibitors and collectors who had traveled several hundred miles to be a part of Sunday's exhibition at Cape Girardeau's Drury Lodge, the pieces on display were a glimpse into the cultures that lived in this area about 12,000 years ago.

The 11th annual exhibition, sponsored by the Bootheel Archaeological Society and always held on the last Sunday of June, was moved this year to Cape Girardeau after having been held in Sikeston for the last 10 years.

In addition, to the nearly 70 exhibitors on hand, organizer Jerry Davis of Jackson estimated that 200 spectators visited the show. Some of the exhibitors were selling; others were just showing their collections as a way of raising awareness about Indian culture. Some of the spectators were buying. Others were there to see and learn more about the cultures.

Perry Hagan of Glendale, Ky., has been collecting the artifacts since he was 5 years old. Many of the pieces in his extensive collection are items he picks up while farming on his Hardin County land.

Hagan, a member of a small chapter of the Central States Archaeological Society, traveled to exhibit in Missouri for the first time. His purpose was not to sell any of his collection but to educate people about the lost cultures represented by the artifacts.

"It's really a misnomer to call them arrowheads," Hagan said, pointing to a display of objects in a case.

"A lot of the items predate the invention of the bow 3,000 years ago. They couldn't be arrows," he explained.

The objects in one of his many cases dates back 12,000 years to the Paleo-Indian culture, one of the early American hunting people. Many of the objects were far too large and cumbersome to have ever been used on arrows and may have been used on darts or spears or as tools, such as knives and scrapers.

"Most of the things people call arrowheads are really hand-held multipurpose tools," he said.

Hagan studied archaeology and anthropology when he was a student at the University of Kentucky and went on an archaeological dig with his professors. He might have majored in archaeology, but he found little interest among his professors in the artifacts of early American cultures. They were more interested in archaeological sites in other countries than in discovering early American artifacts, he said.

Many of the remains of those cultures can be found in Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee. Some were discovered in middle Tennessee near the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. Remnants of the Mississippian culture have been discovered in Cape Girardeau.

Ray Boren, a member of the Bootheel Archaeological Society and one of the organizers of the exhibition, has been interested in the artifacts all his life but has taken an active interest in discovering and preserving the artifacts only in the last 20 years. Many remnants can be found south of Whitewater, particularly near Advance, he said..

"When the weather is right and the farmers are out plowing, I can spend a couple of nights a week walking the fields and looking," he said.

The artifacts are often found near water on mounds or ridges of white or red ground, Boren said.