Home of the Clovis Point and thousands of other scrapers,
knives and spear points
Clovis Points are a distinct style of spear point and are among
the most famous archeological artifacts in America. They were first unearthed
in 1933 by Edgar B Howard in a mass of wooly mammoth bones at Blackwater Draw near
the town of Clovis in eastern New Mexico.
Archeologists say these Blackwater Draw points were made 13,000 or so
years ago from flint that originated 170 miles away at what is now known as Alibates Flint
Quarries National Monument. Since
then, thousands of Clovis-era and more recent tools made from Alibates Flint have
been found all across North America.
My girlfriend Craig and I recently camped our way across
Texas adding stamps to our National Park Passports, catching a Willie Nelson
concert and experiencing the spring warbler migration along the gulf coast. Located about 35 miles north of Amarillo,
Texas, Alibates Flint Quarries is one of the coolest places we visited during
our month long journey and joins my list of favorite hidden gems of the Park
Service.
The landscape of Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
The story of Alibates Flint Quarries begins almost 300
million years ago. As with many sparsely
vegetated landscapes, you can really see the rock layers carved away by erosion,
in this case by the Canadian River and its tributaries. Layers of red rock laid down as sandstone and
mudstone in old rivers and streams around 290 million years ago form the base
layer of our geologic layer cake. Next
up is a thin layer of Alibates Dolomite set down by shelled sea animals and
corals when this area was under a shallow sea about 260 million years ago. There is some more recent gypsum layered in and
it is all topped off with rounded river rock and sediments that arrived in
Texas from the Rocky Mountains within the last 12 million years. These rounded rocks were later used by the area’s
early inhabitants to work the flint.
An example of the river rock used to break apart the flint into workable pieces
Alibates flint is agatized dolomite, or chert, created when
silica rich waters replaced the minerals in the dolomite layer with quartz
crystals so small that most microscopes cannot see them individually. This small crystalline structure is the
reason this flint is stronger than steel.
In addition to the theory that the flint was created at the same time as
the dolomite, there is the thought that the silica originated in the ash from
the Yellowstone super-volcano. No one
really knows, but the result is a uniquely colored flint of reds, greys and purples.
This unique coloration makes recognition of its tools and projectile points
much easier for archeologists when it is found in other places.
Some of the colors of Alibates Flint
Alibates flint is named for Alibates Creek which was named
for Allen “Allie” Bates, a cowboy that worked on a local ranch. Little did Allie Bates know that his name
would eventually be associated with a source of flint that was traded by the
local indigenous people to others on the Pacific Coast, as far north as
Minnesota and south into Mexico and the northern regions of South America. The flint is that good.
Working flint is known as knapping which means “to break
with a sharp blow.” Initially, the stone
knives, scrapers and spear points were made from flint that was found on the ground’s
surface. Its tight crystalline structure
makes it break in a predictable manner.
These first tools and spear points were made starting at the end of the
last ice age by nomadic peoples who followed herds of bison and mammoths across
what was then a much cooler and wetter grassland ecosystem. The larger river rocks found in the area served
as the striking stones to form the flint into a crude form of the desired final
product. Then using the tip of a small
antler as a form of hammer, the final shape is made by pressing away small
pieces to form the sharp edges and create the spear point, knife or scraper. These points are worked on both sides making
the edges razor sharp.
You can see the razor sharp edges on this piece of worked flint
The most industrious indigenous peoples to utilize Alibates
flint lived in the area from around 1200 to 1450. They were not nomadic people, rather they built
permanent structures and farmed. Known
as the Antelope Creek people, they realized that the flint found sitting on the
surface had been subjected to weather and was not as strong as flint dug from
the ground. Over 700 small pits, 10 to
20 feet across, now dot the landscape around the national monument and adjacent
lands where the Antelope Creek people quarried flint. As pieces of flint came out of the ground,
they were evaluated and crudely worked seeking the finest pieces to be used for
tool making. As a result, the ground is
littered with broken flint left behind as these people worked only the very
best flint into crude blanks about the size of a pop tart. These were then
traded to other tribes. Making finished
tools for trading was time consuming and, given how sharp, also dangerous to
transport. It was much more efficient to
create blanks for trading and let others work the flint into whatever tools
they desired. This incredible slice of
cultural history was preserved as a national monument by Congress in 1965.
An example of the trade blanks made by the Antelope Creek people 1200 - 1450
Since we were camping in our little Alto trailer, we sought
the closest public campground and ended up at Lake Meredith National Recreation
Area. Also an NPS site and a
place we needed to visit for a passport stamp, we had reservations for two
nights. I honestly do not understand why
Lake Meredith is managed by the Park Service.
It is a campground and boat launch on a reservoir and I somehow missed
the national significance that landed it with the Park Service to manage. Nonetheless it is only about a half hour or
so from Alibates Flint Quarries so was a good spot from which to base our visit.
Park volunteer and our guide, Ron Payne, pointing out one of the 700 or so pits where flint was quarried
A visit to Alibates Flint Quarries gives you the chance to
pick up and hold worked pieces of flint left behind by the flint miners and
tool knappers. But you have to go with
a guide. The Park Service provides two
guided hikes a day to the flint quarry site from April through September. There is no cost, though they prefer you make
a reservation. We met at the visitor center
at 11 am and joined five other folks on a tour led by Ron Payne, a Master Park
Volunteer with over 10,000 hours contributed to telling the Alibates story. Ron was a wealth of information and he knew
where some very cool artifacts were sitting on the ground.
The trail up to the ridge where we walked on flint
We drove the first few miles, through a locked gate, and
then embarked on a one-mile round trip moderate hike along the ridge top to see
the quarry pits and have the privilege of picking up and holding a bit of
history. There are literally thousands
of worked pieces of flint littering the ground.
Most are larger pieces broken off during the search for that perfect
piece that could be worked into a trade blank.
But in some places the littered rock was much smaller indicating where
someone worked a piece of flint into a usable tool. Ron showed us examples of scrapers used on
animal hides and some rough spear points that didn’t quite meet the standards
of the flint knappers and were thus discarded.
He also showed us examples of the trade blanks. It was way cool.
Pieces of flint littered the ground everywhere
While NPS does have local flint-knappers that can
demonstrate how these tools and spear points are made, the thrill of picking up
and marveling at stone that was worked over 800 years ago cannot be
topped. Of course, we placed everything
we looked at back on the ground for the next visitors to enjoy. But for the two hours or so we were on top of
the ridge, our imagination was our guide as we tried to visualize life when
these flint quarry pits were in full production. We picked up rocks and mimicked striking
pieces of flint. We held the scrapers
and spear points in our hands and tried to imagine using them. And we imagined how this flint traveled via
traditional trade routes to all corners of our country and into Mexico and
South America. The opportunity to spark
my imagination while holding 800 year-old tools found where they were made is
the very reason I visit national parks.
