One of the most significant Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in Northwest Missouri is the Peterson Site situated between St. Joseph, MO and the Iowa border.
This website is designed for use by school children, amateur archaeologists and professional archaeologists. The identification of the site is very general because the site is not open to visiors or artifact collectors. An "estimated" age for the site is 9550 BC (based on parallels to excavated Clovis sites that have yielded charcoal for C-14 dating). The site was discovered by Mr. S. Peterson, an amateur archaeologist.
Clovis points, spurred end scrapers, flake scrapers, limaces, waste flakes, and a piece of worked hematite have been recovered from the surface of this site. Bone material and charcoal have not been observed on the surface of the site. The site has not been tested to determine how much cultural material extends below the plowzone.
Professor Michael Fuller and Mr. Peterson at the sites during summer of 2007.
The site is not in the main Missouri River valley. It is situated several miles east of the main valley, on a high hilltop with a small seep spring situated nearby. The high elevation and nearby seep spring are landscape traits that it shares in common with the Martens Site near Chesterfield, Missouri. The Peterson site is in a very different landscape setting from the Kimmswick Site situated in Jefferson County, Missouri. Site size is esimated at 10 acres making it at least twice the size of the Martens site.
Images of the Clovis Points
...............Click here to see digital images of the scrapers
Click here to see images of the blades.......................................
...............Click here to see images of the hammerstones