Katie’s April 2026 Big Garden Find
We always keep an eye out for arrowheads in the big garden and in other areas around Wilson Holler. Over the years there’s been some dandy ones found. I’ve only found a couple, none of them good ones.
Paul used to hunt arrowheads in is spare time. In early spring when folks were haring their gardens he’d get permission and go see what he could find after a good rain. Of course he didn’t have to ask permission here in Wilson Holler and he found some good ones here too.
Katie is a true rockhound. She never met a rock she didn’t like. We used to tease and say if you wanted to get her a special gift at Christmas just go out and shovel up a bag of gravel for her.
Back in 2012 Katie found this beauty in the big garden. She was supposed to be throwing rocks while Matt tilled, but instead she was playing with the dogs. Katie bent over to wrestle with Molly and spied the amazing arrowhead.
When Katie and Corie were in high school one of their assignments was to make a bottle rocket. Students paired off in groups to work on the project. On the big day of testing the rockets to see how many would actually fly the students gathered in a field behind the school. Katie looked down and between her feet lay a big arrowhead.
Katie’s April 2026 Big Garden Find
Back in April Katie was walking around the big garden with Ira. He loves to be outside.
Ira got off ahead of Katie and she hurried to catch up with him. She looked down and saw the worked edge of the arrowhead sticking out of the dirt. She figured it was too good to be true, but when she pulled it out it was perfect!
She found it very close to the place she found the one back in 2012.
If you ever get a chance to visit Murphy be sure to go by the Cherokee County Historical Museum. They have a wonderful collection of Cherokee artifacts.
Tipper
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As a kid growing up in the northern part of SC, my older brother and I walked miles in the corn fields and cotton fields after a good rain looking for arrowheads. We found our fair share of nice ones. Over time I have found arrowheads in NC and Texas while stationed there with the US Army. In the desert in west Texas, I have found all sorts of stone tools, I even have a stone used to grind grains in along with the grinding stone. Arrowheads, knives, skinning stones. Worked one summer with University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) in their archaeology department. That was fun. Also have a few arrowheads from California that were given to me by my late father-in-law.
Praying for papaw Tony.
When we were kids, my aunt sent us some arrowheads that her husband found when he tilled up their garden. They lived in the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley. I still have them.
On one of our yearly trips to the mountains of North Carolina mountains, a Cherokee Indian named Hornbuckle let the adults fish in his lake on the reservation. All of us kids were playing in the creek & I stepped on something that cut my foot. It was a quartz arrow head & I was thrilled to death to find it. I am still thrilled to have it so much that it is in my bank lockbox. An archeologist friend of my gave me a hatchet head, archaic arrow heads & a conglomerate pounding rock that he had found in Alabama. I treasure those as well. I sure wish I could find more arrowheads etc.
Hi Tipper and Acorns. We have lots of arrowheads in our county. One man had trunks full of them and they lined every wall in his 4-bedroom house. Everyone that digs or plows turns them up. There is a tree near HW 67 W that is a Native American Directional Tree. It was bent at a 90-degree angle to point to an important place. I never have found the place. It is on private property. We had lots of rain today. There is 14 hours of moderate to heavy rain to start at 8pm tonite. I keep everyone here and up Wilson Holler in my prayers. I thank all of you for praying for Ed and me. Praise report, my daughter Ann has been diagnosed with a Dysautonomia Disorder called Sjogren’s. It’s not good news as far as having it goes, but now we can start moving forward with testing and treatment for all three of us. GOD our Father is Great. I love y’all.
It’s fun to look for arrowheads. I found a few growing up in Toccoa, Georgia, then in my later years lived near Blue Ridge Georgia where we found some plus some fairy crosses. My brother in law had quite a collection.
Thank you for sharing this story and the photos of the arrowheads. Used to dig up old bottles as a kid and as an adult I love archaeology. I never have found an arrowhead but love finding other things that pop up out of the ground, and sometimes in parking lots.
Yesterday the weatherman call for 0% chance of rainfall at my house so I dragged out the hose and sprinkler. I let the sprinkler go from 12:30 PM until about 4:30. Last night at about 8:30 it began raining and rained pretty good for about an hour.
I have talked to Dusty yesterday morning about the possibility of rain and he said “Just get out your sprinkler and will rain.” This is nothing new. I have done this before. Bring out the sprinkler, give the garden a good soaking, and it will rain!
Update: At about 3:15 PM, just now, I got hit by a dang cycooter. Bout blew me away. It blew all the way through my carport and wet everything on it. It blowed stuff up against the door for me to climb over before I could get out. I have limb, leaves, sticks and twigs everywhere to clean up now.
I’ve got to go put that sprinkler up before it does it again.
PS: I’ll send you a video if I can download it off my Ring cameras.
Glad you didn’t get blowed away! Happy you got rain even if you did have to use the sprinkler first 🙂
Katie must be very happy that her “Pap” had put the big garden in and so near an active relic area. Also that beautiful creek. Especially since her daddy reworked it to be the most beautiful and yielding garden area with a slight abundance of arrowhead treasures. So very awesome for her. Have a wonderful weekend and enjoy all your gardens and their yields, and of course the wondrous and beautiful mountain ranges. God bless everyone, our wonderful country and those who have special needs today, tomorrow and always.
Wow Tipper!!! The arrowheads Katie found are absolutely beautiful and unbelievable. My Dad and I spent years hunting for arrowheads up at the mountains and of course, I hunted rocks, my whole childhood and still do. I live on banks of the river, I’m always looking for rocks at low tide. I guess it’s kind of a thing you never stopped doing when you are into that from a very young age. I am always looking for a heart shaped rock which I have never found one yet. Since it was the past time that my Dad and I did together since I was a little child after he passed away the rocks that I found that he collected from all over were unbelievable. Of course you know where they are. They’re with me in bags. If they’re big enough, I love to put his rocks in my garden and look at them and imagine him finding them if he was away on business and would be in different states he’d always come home with rocks. The rocks I loved to find up the mountains were the six pointed clear quartz rocks. They’re very prevalent in the Pocono mountainside. A side note…I have been lucky enough to get Cherokee Museum in Murphy. I think I told you that before to find out if my original biological last name was on the Baker-roll 1924-1929 and they were my biological grandfathers last name was Arrowwood. I thought I’d tell you the name because it was so closely related to arrowheads. It’s a really great place to go. If you want get information on your heritage, I did quite a bit of research on my family from North Carolina. And from time to time you’ll mention different towns that they lived in all over in your area and I’m like oh that’s where that location is when you mention the towns nearby. Imagine my grandfather’s family started out in Murphy, North Carolina, which is unbelievable or Cherokee, North Carolina whichever is the proper name. I loved this blog today about Katie and the rocks. I have a lot of respect for the work she does. I wish I could do the same. I would just have to go back 20 years to her age again. Have a beautiful blessed day. and thank you for all you do!!
Beautiful arrow heads. What Diane has been looking for is fairy crosses. We’ve seen them in different museums in Murphy and Franklin and have asked where we could find them. No luck so far. As an addictions counselor I’ve used the vast Cherokee history and culture with several of my clients over the years who have had issues with addiction. Again beautiful arrow heads.
I’m one of those people who can never find arrowheads or 4 leaf clovers. I could never see the picture in those magic scene books either! Those are some nice arrowheads Katie! I’d be tickled plum pink if I ever found one. Hope y’all are all doing good over in the holler today. God bless
Wow! Absolutely amazing finds! Such treasures.
I enjoyed your Aunt Aerie reading SO much last night. She was such a stoic and emotionally sound woman. So kind and helpful to all, too. I am learning so much from her. When I was a young girl, I was enlisted to help a very elderly lady in our community weed her garden throughout the summer. I would bike about 3 miles to her country property and weed her garden and then we’d visit for a while. She was born in 1908 and lived to be 98. She was the youngest of 10 children. She was in her late 80s and early 90s when we’d visit for a while. Oh, what I wouldn’t give to go back and visit with her now! I am afraid as a child I didn’t even realize all I could have gleaned from conversing with her. Going into her home was like stepping back in time. I was thinking about her and those times while listening to Aunt Aerie speak last night. Thank you for bringing me back to Ms. Esther’s house in my mind, Tipper. Have a blessed day, Acorns.
I love those! I’ve never found anything near as cool as beautiful rocks or arrowheads. My gift is finding nails and screws in parking lots…lol. My eyes always seem to land on those little tire pokers so I consider it my gift to my fellow man/woman to pick them up and discard them in a trash can. I’d rather find cool rocks though. 🙂
I found my first “arrowhead” in our garden as a young boy. I have spent a lifetime looking for them since. It looks as if the former occupants of Wilson Holler had a lot in common with those who lived in these woods around home. Over the eons, these people must have been more plentiful than I can imagine as almost any place around here where the ground is “disturbed” (logging, farming, construction sites, etc.), one can find hard evidence of long-ago peoples who probably thought their way of life would never change or that their people would disappear. This evidence I am talking about is in the forms of chipped/worked flint, points (blades/arrowheads), pottery shards, bone tools, seashells, etc.). Nice finds.
Great article. Praying for Papaw Tony.
I had a collection of arrow heads as a kid that included a couple of spear heads. My sister (without permission) took them to school for show and tell. Several kids asked if they could have one and she gave away all of the good ones and hid the container in the closet when she got back home. When confronted she said, “Well, you can go and find some more.” Most of the really good ones I had found in caves and hollow places under rocks. My theory was that a wounded animal had crawled in there and died or maybe was able to dislodge the arrow and the hunter was unable to follow up for another shot.
Wow! This is so exciting. We have spent many hours walking fields here in Kansas near our home in search of artifacts. there is a spot on some family property that was obviously a camp where we have found numerous pot shards, scrapers, and arrowheads. I even found a bone awl one time. Hunting Easter eggs is fun, hunting morels is funner, but when you find something that has not been held and a hand for thousands of years it is a truly amazing moment. Keep looking down, Katie.
I’ve never been lucky enough to find a perfect relic of any kind but my former father-in-law, back in the 60s, when first farming the ground they’d bought in the “Kane Bottoms”, found many arrow heads, lots of flint and 2 spectacular pieces. A fairly sharp hatchet and a heavy axe head. After finding this out in the 70s I tried my luck looking. A few pieces of flint was all I found but since I enjoyed being outside, especially beside water (a creek in this case) I was still quite content. Thank you for sharing Katie’s finds♡
Those are great finds!! My eyes always seem to land on screws or nails in parking lots. No one else I’ve ever been walking with would see them but I always do. I consider it my gift to society to pick them up so they don’t end up in someone’s tires. I’d rather find rocks or arrowheads though. 🙂
Great finds! My gift is finding screws and nails in parking lots…lol. No one else would see them but my eyes always seem to land right on them. I now consider it my gift to society to pick them up so they don’t end up in someone’s tires. I’d rather find cool rocks or arrowheads. 🙂
We used to find arrowhead in our garden in Indiana. It was always a thrill!
Wow, those are really nice looking arrowheads Katie found in the big garden. They are keepers!
What beautiful arrowheads! I’ve found a few on the beach in Central California where a creek runs down to the beach. I have a little cabin in the mountains outside of San Diego and have found arrowheads up there on rare occasions. The Native Americans in the area would move from the desert to the mountains and to the ocean as the seasons dictated. What treasures…always interesting to think of the individuals and families whose hands touched and used those very things.
I grew up in a valley north of Chattanooga. My family found many native relics over the years and as far as I know one sibling still has them. I remember as a kid when my dad found what looked like a tomahawk head in good condition while plowing potatoes with his team. I can’t really identify pieces and don’t know the difference in spear points and arrow heads but in later life learned that what we always called arrowheads might not be used as an arrow. It’s amazing that after all these years Katie is still finding relics. By training Ira what to look for he will have a chance to find even more.
Besides connecting with history, any kind of search for “finds” teaches us to be observant. And that serves well in life. The more we look the more we see. The more we see the more we find. The more we find the more we understand. Applies to far more than just physical objects. You are a finding kind of person also, Tipper. I think maybe most of us are in some way or ways. There must be a lesson of some sort in that, or maybe several. (There I go again! It is a thought habit of mine to go from the specific to to general. It is aggravating to some people I know. I don’t set out to do it.)
How neet it is to find artifacts on your own property! Just think of who might have last held that arrowhead, and who the people were who lived there. It was like a different world.
Those are some beautiful arrowheads! We don’t live far from the Manassas Battlefields and have record of Civil War soldiers camping along our creek side. To our excitement, after a good rain, we have found many a historic relic in our big garden along with lots and lots of pottery shards. If only those pieces could talk!
Although Florida’s history is full of Native American history, I’ve never heard too much about arrowheads being here. They were common in Iowa where I was born and was raised until the 9th grade and my family moved south. Eons ago, nearly all of Florida was completely submerged , with the exception being a strip of land called the Lake Wales Ridge. I live in Avon Park which is “on the ridge” in Highlands County (hence the name). The big thing for many is to search for fossils in areas just west of here and, particularly, sharks teeth. As the sea water retreated many sea creatures were trapped in large areas of no escape and nature did what nature does. So yes… amazing finds are exactly that, and each one serve to stimulate ones curiosity and reenergizes the desire to find “just one more”.
Tom, a friend in north Florida used to sweep farm fields in Leon and Gadsden counties after rains to add to his extensive collection of arrow heads and other artifacts. He sometimes hired kids to help, and they learned as they collected. He had a modest outbuilding for displaying his best stuff. The Touchtons were childless, as far as I know, so I’ve always wondered what happened to his property and his lifelong collection. I have picked up a few points in Florida and South Carolina, but my most exciting find was in a freshly harrowed food plot while on a turkey hunt in Paint Bank, Virginia. I spied two hammer stones within a few feet of each other. I gave my granddaughter one and left the other with our host at the hunting camp. These were round stones with indentions drilled into both sides for a comfortable grip. Couldn’t ask for a better nut cracker or bone crusher.