The Artifact Hunter

Eugene Baldwin unwittingly became an avocational archaeologist at the age of eight on his grandfather’s southern Illinois farm. He would follow the plow during spring planting and scoop up arrowheads, spear points and “mystery” stones in the furrows. Decades later, from farms in Jersey County, on the Mississippi River, his collection of found objects numbers in the thousands.

Since 1990, Eugene Baldwin (he was given the nickname Artifact Hunter by deer hunters) has been traveling to schools, libraries, rock clubs and other venues, showing his collection, telling stories about encounters with wild animals, hunting in the aftermath of flash floods, discovering burial mounds and ancient campsites, and relating current archaeological theories about, and the known history of the First Americans. The Artifact hunter’s knowledge comes from relationships with archaeologists in Illinois, New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia, as well as extensive reading and study.

Audience members stand within a few feet of the artifacts. With the exception of extremely fragile objects, people will be invited to touch and handle stone, clay and bone artifacts. This is four degrees of separation: the tool maker (20,000 to 1000 years ago) the tool user, the Artifact Hunter finding the object, the audience holding history in its collective hands.

Subject areas: Archaeology, Anthropology, Social Studies, History, Natural History.