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Locals Bring Treasures To Artifact Roadshow

Dr. Ron Reno, an archeologist from Silver City, explains to Overton resident Irma Reyes that the rock she found in her garden after the 1981 flood through Moapa Valley is an excellent example of a Great Basin stemmed projectile point that may be 8,000 to 9,000 years old.

By Mike Donahue

Moapa Valley Progress

Fifteen Moapa Valley residents turned out last Saturday at the Lost City Museum to allow a visiting archeologist to examine and identify some personal treasures they brought in that included a bucket of historic tools, a percussion-cap muzzle loader and a projectile point that may have graced an atlatl spear 9,000 years ago.

Dr. Ron Reno, who specializes in historical archeology, industrial archeology and historic architecture, led the museum’s Artifact Road Show in which he helped local citizens put a name to historical items they may have found or had in the family for years and not known what the items were or how they were used.

“It went really well,” Dena Sedar, Lost City Museum archeologist, said. “We wanted people to be able to identify and learn about the historic artifacts they may have had lying around their house, things they may have gotten from their grandparents or great-grandparents, and he named just about everything.”

One of the most unusual items brought into the museum was a white volcanic chert “stemmed projectile point” that Reno estimated to be between 8,000 and 9,000 years old.

Irma Reyes of Overton said she found the point after the massive flood through Moapa Valley in 1981.

“It was either washed into my garden or the flood waters uncovered it there,” Reyes said. “I washed it and it’s been sitting in my jewelry box ever since. I’m really excited because mine looks completely different from any of the others (on display) in the museum.”

This projectile point may have tipped an atlatl spear thousands of years ago. It was discovered by Irma Reyes in her garden after the 1981 Moapa Valley flood.

Reno said the piece was called a Great Basin stemmed point and added that while it was interesting it was not unique.

“These types of spear points are pretty common,” he said.

What Reno said he found most intriguing was a piece of smooth dark rock brought into the Road Show by Logandale resident Nancy Vanosdoll.

One side of the rock was covered by “desert varnish,” a natural patina that builds over years and years in the desert. The other side was much lighter, indicating the rock had lain undisturbed for centuries before Vanosdoll moved it.

“Just imagine,” he said. “This rock may have lain out there in the desert untouched for perhaps 10,000 years. It’s just mindboggling. You have these things down here in Southern Nevada. We rarely see this type of thing up north.”

Oscar Mora, Logandale, brought in a smooth-bore .50 caliber percussion cap muzzleloader that Reno said was a typical generic weapon from the mid to late 19th Century. He urged Mora to do some research on his own to see if he could identify an apparent gunsmith’s logo on one side of the firearm.

Reno went through a bucket of different outdoor and indoor tools brought in by Ruth Shakespeare of Overton and also examined a bronze item emblazoned with a “flying monkey” motif, a woven basket and a uniquely glazed ceramic pot.

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