Tips on finding arrow heads

Anyone have any tips on finding them? I know they're in my area because people in my area including my dad have found things left by natives but I can't find any to save my life

Usually near creeks and waterways, and on elevated humps and such where Indians would put a camp or village to stay out of flood water.

Worked up ground after a rain, flint washes clean and sticks out like a sore thumb in the right conditions.

High ground next to water. If worked ground all the better but not necessary. Walk all gullies in these fields. As above after rain they have a shiny glassy look. You can find one anywhere, but rocks of about the same size as arrow heads on top of ground is a plus, rocks wash up in similar sizes. Any flint shards also great sign. Stop and smell the roses, many times I’ve found them just standing still. Spotted them from tractor cab as well. Primary colors are black, red, grey. But not always! Jet black is mostly around here, nothing in fields look like that but black trash bags. You’ll find more going slow than fast. Find a place with flint shards and pieces, walk slow. I’ve found more than couple while taking a whiz. Here are some broken, crude finds which is what’s mostly out there.

Once in awhile you find a perfect one. While fishing at neighbors pond, it literally was right there at the edge under an inch of water.

Completely off topic, but that rich blue is the slipcase to this book. Pricey but well worth it. Tons of photos on glossy paper. Top notch read.

Learn the flint types found in your area. Also learn to recognize fire cracked rock as an indicator of settlement.
You are in Michigan so Bayport chert may be one of the types in your area depending on what part of the state.
I live a few miles from the quarry that it is found in.

Also if you live close to a chapter of the Michigan Archaeology Society, you can attend a meeting or 2. Obviously no one is going to give you any of their best spots, but a view of local collections would be beneficial. They sometimes have society projects that you can be involved in.

I found this on a job site. Had been seeing lots of chips. Creek runs through there with clear water in it. Most of the water around here is muddy. I'm sure it was used often as a living spot. Most of the stuff I've found is in the dry country of the west. Even pastures the grass is not generally real thick. Around here artifacts are found in row crop fields and creek bottoms that are not grown up in vegetation. Pretty hard to find them when you cant see the dirt.

walk recently plowed fields shortly AFTER a rain and look for just a corner poking out of the dirt.

use a walking staff or something to dig a bit to avoid bending over 5000 times in an afternoon.

Both of these were found in old washed out logging roads.

Nice thread. Thanks.

I find local chert and pottery shards near water. I stand in the creek/water source and look UP towards high ground. People don't till ground anymore, so waiting for a heavy rain to wash new material up helps. Knowing the types of chert available in your area, and subsequently where it is located is paramount in my opinion. If you can find where the chert was quarried at, then you can look at maps and find routes from known settlements.

I find I can make them easier than I can find them. I try to use locally sourced material to replicate the points found near me. I have found points dearly identical to the ones I make.

wow pintail. I believe you would have been a wealthy stone age tradesman

Very good advice above. Not much plowing anymore but when someone near a stream does ,get in there. They followed large streams and camped on high ground nearby. Most camps around me had a spring. They are usually tiled now but drain into the stream. Sometimes I walk the corn rows and the roots push them up. I really hate no till!

My grandfather had a cigar box full of arrow heads. He started out farming with a team of horses and was standing right behind the plow watching the ground get turned up all day.

Great thread!

Why the east side?

My dad used to find them by looking in the spoils pile at a cemetery where he visited his mom's grave. When new graves were dug there was always excess soil and a place where it was dumped. That's where he looked. Like others pointed out, it is freshly turned soil.

A coworker was a collector and found bucket loads in LBL in Ky. He would walk the shores of islands in the lakes (high points) after a rain event that caused water levels to rise and fall.

They were all over here, high low and everywhere in between. Ten thousand plus years of occupation, they were all over. Burn up all the wood in one spot, move down the ridge a hundred feet. Also believe they moved up and down the hills with the season, where ever the temperature was most comfortable.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I really appreciate it

An old neighbor for years and a friend, used to hunt gravel bars in the creeks and rivers around here. He had a masive collection of perfect stuff, and buckets full of broken stuff. I went with him a few times, and he would walk a grid over every gravel bar he came to, with a stick, and flip out everything that looked suspect. I would do like him, and couldn't find a thing! He always came away from a gravel bar with some stuff, sometimes nice and sometimes broken!