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The following account is based upon 25 artifacts recovered
at Redwing Campsite (located on McKeen Lake), State of Michigan archaeological
site no. , located seven miles northwest of Lapeer,
Michigan, as well as publications of the Michigan Department
of Natural History, and research materials on file at the Lapeer
Public Library and the State of Michigan Library in Lansing,
Michigan.
Like a drum roll from the past, one can easily imagine the
roaring thunder of storms at the south face of the retreating
Port Huron Glacier 10,000 years ago. Black thunderheads boiled
up miles high above the mile-thick ice while flashes of lightning
interrupted the darkness, explosions on the battlefront of warm
air confronting cold.
When at last the land lay quiet and free of ice, barren but
fertile, the first human beings appeared. They were nameless
tribes, known only by the era of time within which they passed
their lives. Terrible hardships and limited nourishment probably
growth above five feet tall a rarity and someone lucky enough
to live to 25-years-old was likely considered an elder of the
clan.
Almost nothing is known of the Paleos, the first to arrive
in Michigan. Only a few points of stone from that era have been
found, fluted rather than notched. Redwing campsite began being
used by people of the Archaic Era for habitation about 8,000
years before Columbus discovered America. This was established
by the discovery of two, almost identical dart points at the
site about 40 years apart, of the unique Dustin style seen only
in the Archaic Era. (continued at top-right
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The two points, dating the site, are crafted with the oldest
of stonework which was much finer than seen later in time. Like
many of the points, celts, hammers, and spearheads found at Redwing
Campsite, the matching Dustins were manufactured from chunks
of Bayport Chert mined by the ancient peoples and carried with
them for that purpose. Hundreds of chips of the material found
at Redwing Campsite reflect the crafting done there.
Of special interest are two skinning knives made of the
chert but one is for a left-handed person and the other for a
right-handed one. Clearly the propensity for one or the other
in humans existed all those thousands of years ago as well as
in modern man.
About half of the artifacts discovered at the site were found
on the wooded peninsula and the rest in the spring-fed lake surrounding it.
This is evidence of a shoreline that fluctuated materially as
the campsite was used century after century.
Hunting of the Woolly Mammoth and other game was done with
long-handled darts thrown with an atlatle thrower as well as
with spears. The bow and arrow was invented thousands of years
later. The Native Americans associated with the more modern weapon
are not necessarily descendants of the prehistoric people of
Redwing Campsite, carbon-dated skulls of the ancients being European
in shape rather than Asian according to the most recent research.
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