Celebrating harvest, heritage: Artifacts display at Ashford’s Harvest Day honors our past

On a day devoted to celebrating the area’s agricultural roots, it was perhaps only fitting that one of the main attractions at Saturday’s Harvest Day celebration in Ashford was devoted to artifacts from the area’s first settlers - Native Americans.

The area surrounding Ashford’s restored depot was filled with vendors selling arts and crafts as well as food and beverages. The children were not overlooked, as the area provided ample entertainment - from inflatables to mechanical bull riding to the opportunity to “rock” climb.

Numerous vocal groups were also on hand to provide musical entertainment.

Inside the depot, collectors Ray McNiel and Jerome Pate had set up their displays of Indian artifacts. Visitors to the displays were amazed at the high number and equally high quality of the artifacts that were on display.

Pansey native Ray McNiel, 55, had not participated in an artifacts show in 10 years.  He says the artifacts displays serve an important purpose for him - educating young people about a forgotten part of this region’s heritage.
“I love the opportunity to tell the children about these artifacts,” said McNiel, whose great-great-grandmother was an Indian. “Part of what I tell them is that some of these artifacts are as much as 8,000 years old. That’s why there is so much of this stuff. They’ve been around a long time. For that reason, I’m not surprised they found some at Country Crossings.

“This area was mainly inhabited by the Creek Indians. The artifacts you see here all came from Houston County.”
McNiel, who works as a paramedic with the Ashford Fire and Rescue Department, was introduced to artifact hunting at a young age.

“I was somewhere around eight years old, when my brother, who is older than I am, had started collecting,” McNiel said. “He gave me some of his.”

The search-for-artifacts bug had bitten McNiel.

“I remember getting one, when I was picking cotton,” McNiel said as he recalled one of his first finds.
“My family was sharecroppers,” McNiel continued. “We found artifacts on the property where we worked.
“Later on, I started renting land to farm. I have since given that up. I also got hungry.”

Although he doesn’t till land any longer, McNiel continues to search for hidden treasures in his spare time.
“People still let me go on their property and look,” said McNiel, whose most recent find included an encounter with a water moccasin. “Most people, if you ask for permission, will let you look. You will do a lot of walking and digging.”

Now what about that snake story? McNiel smiles when asked about it.

“I was on a four-wheeler riding along a creek,” McNiel said as he discussed his latest find - a spear point, which, in collector’s terminology is a Pickwick. “I had to move a log, so that I could keep going. When I did, I saw a snake. I shot him with my pistol.”

The troublesome encounter didn’t deter McNiel in his pursuit of history.

“I went a litter farther up the creek bed,” McNiel said. “That is where I found the spear point.”

Artifacts can turn up anywhere. But, says McNiel, there is an art to unearthing them.

“Some of the artifacts you see here were found in a creek,” McNiel said. “They have been polished by the water. Others were found in fields.
“You just have to know the area. Most of the time, when you are in a field, there is a ‘hot spot.’ You could walk yourself to death in a hundred-acre field. You have to know what you are looking for and where that ‘hot spot’ might be.”

The hobby is not for the weak or faint of heart.

“It’s a good hobby, but it’s not for everyone,” McNiel noted. “You get out and walk. But, you don’t find artifacts every time. You may go 10 times before you find one. I don’t do any digging. What you see are what are called surface finds.”

McNiel says chipped and broken artifacts pop up a great deal. Finding an intact arrowhead, spear point or pottery, however, makes the search worthwhile.

“It would be great to get to an area that has just been cleared and not plowed over,” McNiel said.
Although he likes to display his finds, McNiel is not your typical artifacts exhibitor.

“I’ve never bought or sold an artifact,” McNiel said. “I just enjoy finding them.”

And he is happy to share them with the public - especially when it can be an educational experience for the visitors to his display.
(Elaine Brackin is managing editor of The Dothan Progress.)