When you visit the local history museums, do you find yourself wishing you knew more about those mysterious chipped points under the glass? Perhaps you are a collector, but are not entirely sure where or who certain parts of your collection came from. If so, then the State Library has added a new reference that will pique your interest.
Stone Projectile Points Of The Pacific Northwest: An Arrowhead Collector’s Guide To Type Identification. By E. Scott Crawford (Carrollton, Tex.: Black Rock Publishing, ©2010. 130 p.)
This work is the lifelong achievement of the author, an expert collector who began his journey in 1962. It identifies 62 different arrowhead, dart, and lance points, with full descriptions and illustrations to help you learn more about these historic indigenous hunting tools. It covers the geographic regions now occupied by the states of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, with northern portions of California and Nevada, and western portions of Montana and Wyoming.
This book contains an introduction to identifying points and a glossary of terms. It then proceeds to a discussion of the geographic features and the lithic (stone or rock) resources for each of the four Pacific Northwest regions named in the book. The chronological and temporal location of the point types are wonderfully illustrated in the following section, and then an entire section is dedicated to describing the manufacture of projectile points. The index of projectile points are organized by general shape, then by primary characteristics. This is an essential guide to both the hobbyist and the casual collector, and a fascinating read for those curious.
ISBN-10: 1453798471
Last Friday I had the pleasure of [virtually] being part of a panel at the WLA / PNLA conference in Victoria. The panel was called “Reference Service Innovations: Present and Future”, and my fellow panelists and I were given some excellent questions to consider.