Introduction Mississippian Period • Telephone to the Great Spirit • Mississippian triangulars • Cahokia The Woodland Period • Late to middle Woodland • Late to middle Woodland ceramics Archaic Period • Nebo Hill - Our areas indiginous culture The Mercer Site • A multli-occupational site and map. Remnants • Fishing River's disappearing past Contact Me Home The Mercer Site More than 7,000 years before the spring day that I walked a plowed field on fishing river someone stood where I was walking and lost something. Plodding along the edge of the field, which is north of Excelsior Springs, I noticed a shiny piece of dark grey chert contrasting the rain moistened soil. It was the broken base of a peculiar spear point or blade. I picked the piece up, got a bearing from the stone bluff above me as an approximate location and continued walking. That evening when I got home and found an identification resource I compared the artifact to similary fashioned pieces. It became obvious that I had found a Graham Cave projectile. These Early Archaic stone tools were in use from around 7,000-5,000 BC. The field I had been walking for over seven years had yeilded the oldest of its inhabitants traces....now there were over a hundred artifacts ranging from 7,000 BC to 1,200 AD. The field had proven to have been occupied during nearly every time period between these vastly seperated dates. I am convinced that by the number of artifacts found, at least during a few of these periods... many people had lived there, possibly for spans of a hundred or more years continuosly. There are four locations in the site where there were concentrations of fire reddened limestone from hearths. On its north end Mississipian triangulars and Cahokia side notched arrow heads. A stretch of middle woodland artifacts surfaced in the fields center that stretched north to south from one end of the site to the other. There are many hundreds of pieces of pottery and tools of all sorts from this time period. This is what I believe Middle Woodland to be the sites longest and largest occupation. On a small rise at its southern slope were found Nebo Hill period artifacts, and a collection in one spot just to the east of spears and blades from around AD 1. The diversity of this site alone makes it significant. There was something about this location that was attractive to group after group. A picture began to form ... one that supported by the sites topography showed a unique landscape with two merging waterways that made the conditions and flood resistant dynamics unchangingly ideal for habitation. Fishing River flows due south until it reaches the point where a subsidiary creek empties into it from the east. Where these two streams merge, Fishing River takes a nearly 90° turn to the west. Of the subsidiary streams that drain into the Fishing River from its start to where it empties into the Missouri, this is one of the longest and largest. During the heavy spring rains in the area the vast amount of water carried by the creek drives its mass through a relatively narrow passage between the limestone walls on either side of it where the two waters meet. The influence of the creeks flow is signifigant enough to always force Fishing River westwardly. An aspect of this condition is that the flooding has cut a wide basin pathway to the west that accomodates the water that would otherwise encompass the site. These two opposing forces of water protected the site and provided a safe place to live during wet or dry seasons. Other valuable resources occured from this circumstance. The place where these two channels of water collided formed what is refered to as a hole. A deep washed out pit of significant proportions. This would have provided an excellent place to fish, and I have discovered pieces of limestone whose naturally porous attributes were drilled and converted for use as seine weights. I found these on the northern edge of the field within 25 feet of the hole. As one travels east up the creek bed, only a little more than a 1/4 of a mile, there is one of many limestone overhangs along the bluffs that has been dug out ... about 30 feet back into the hillside. In this small cave are deposits of pyrite. I believe that the pyrite was being harvested for use in the decoration of pottery. Much of the pottery found in the site glitters with small pieces of pyrite that are mixed into the clay and give it an artistic and attractive surface appearance. I believe that an excavation of the caves floor would reveal tools used in this process of harvesting and that it was a resource for many cultures of those who inhabitated this site on the Fishing River. Return to top of page