Cool find (to me) at the lease.

While hiking my fat butt off, looking for a decent mule deer (which I failed at), I walked around the top of a very deep, steep, fishhook shaped canyon. About 50 yards from the head of it, I found this. This is way up high, not near any modern agriculture, ranch work, etc. I've walked by a few of these, but none this big. The rancher thought it was for making arrow heads, but I think it was the cooking pit in the link below. Anyway, no big kill to show, but I like to take my time and look around stuff like this while I'm hunting. (The date's wrong on my cheap, Walmart camera. 'Shoulda' stuck with my phone.)




>>>Burned rock midden

Very cool

Very cool CR. I always enjoy looking around for artifacts.

I hunt a Ranch in Oklahoma that is literally split by the Chisholm trail, I know there is stuff out there but I am not educated on indian artifacts at all so I have no clue what to look for. I thought for sure I would have found an arrowhead by now but nope.

That's cool.

Those were areas used for cooking. Often times you can find multiple artifacts (arrowheads, knife blades, etc) around them. Really cool stuff if you are into that like I am.

very nice

That is neat. Did any rocks look burned?

Very neat find

Id start walking around looking for artifacts

Creekrunner - that is awesome! I'm a huge fan of searching for artifacts. I bet that would be fun to do a little investigating around that area. If you get back there and find anything, please post it up! Good luck on the future Mule hunts our there!

No, but I didn't disturb it at all. I will try to go back and scratch in the dirt around it a little. Helluva hike for an old man though.

Are you sure that is not a cairn??

Doesn't look to be knappable stone.

While MUCH larger than anything I've come across, it looks like a 'midden'. Basically a trash pile.

If you were to dig through it...you'd likely find burned rock, DARK, DARK, powdered earth and debris.

Probably turn up some bones and teeth. All that I have dug through also contained broken points.

Interesting find. I'm sure some local archaeologist could give you a pretty good idea of what tribe(s) likely made it and which ones inhabited that area. A midden of that size suggests usage over a long period of time.

Typically, you find middens at the edges of encampments. So...no doubt there are artifacts in the area. But you won't find much on the surface. You'd have to have permission to 'dig' to find anything substantial.

Nice find CR, I'd still be there

Last thing I want to do is piss off the spirits of my ancient hunting brothers. 'Seen "Jeremiah Johnson" more than a normal person should. Don't want to dig up anything grieved over by anyone, past or present.

You've come far pilgrim

X2. That is cool CR.

Way cool. Tough people to survive and thrive in the desert.

Cool fire rocks are usually reddish on one side and white or grey on top. The white is from animal fat cooking into the stone.
That is a great area to look for points, scrapers and knives.

Way cool. As much fun looking at that as deer hunting, in my opinion. It’s like looking back in time

I agree, midden pile. All that I have dug in have gotten covered in dirt in time. They look like a random dirt mound when we find them. When we are done digging through the mound and getting all on the artifacts outs, we end up with a pile of the cube looking fire rocks (we just call them "midden") that looks piled up like that. The neighbor has a mound that was dug through about 30 years ago and the rock pile has began to become obscure due to time causing it to fill with dirt. We joked that in 50 more years someone will think they have found a new Indian mound and dig through it and not find a thing.
I wonder if that pile has been gone through recently?

Very cool creek, hope you find something there or maybe a Mulie while you are out there

That is a pretty good find. Like most folks, it is pretty cool to find things in the woods.

cool find

Lots of those midden piles in the Trans-Pecos and a few in the Hill Country. Rare to find arrowheads or knives in the pile, usually off to the SE side.
Adios,
Gary

Where would that be?

My extended family has 6,000 acres NW of Enid. There is still a grass hut, a large one, that stands on the property since the late 1800’s. I have explored a lot of that place and found some very interesting things, including very nicely dug graves hours from anything on foot.

LOL...but I agree it is a really cool find.

several mindens on a place I use to hunt north of San Angelo