For many, it may have been an insignificant sight: four sticks, worn over time, protruding from a creek bed.
For Matt Shell of Brookhaven, who found them in a creek on his property on May 31, they seemed very unnatural and were cause for excitement. He was quite certain they were the remains of the work of someone who lived long ago.
As it turns out, they could be hundreds of years old.
“The four stakes were evenly spaced 12 to 13 inches apart in a straight line diagonally in the creek,” Shell said. “I was very suspicious of what it was as soon as I saw it.
“They stood out like a sore thumb to me. I was very excited.”
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A fishweir exposed
Shell suspected it was part of a fishweir; a type of trap used for thousands of years by Native Americans and others around the world to capture fish. He is familiar with them because he’d read about the Sturdivant fishweir that was documented by the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. He said it was found in Amite County near property he owns.
“That was on the Homochitto River,” Shell said. “It was discovered in 1975 after a flood.”
Flooding, along with the recent removal of beaver dams also played a role in the discovery of the stakes on Shell’s property in Brookhaven.
“After I cleared the beaver dams we had two or three big rains,” Shell said. “That’s when they got exposed.”
John Connaway is an authority on fishweirs. He is a former MDAH archaeologist and author of the book, “Fishweirs: A World Perspective with Emphasis on the Fishweirs of Mississippi.”
Connaway explained their construction and function.
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How fishweirs work
Connaway said some fishweirs were V-shaped with the top of the V facing upstream. At the bottom of the V there was a gap where fish would be funneled into a trap.
In other cases a single wing would span the stream diagonally with the opposite bank acting as a wing. Near the bank there would be a trap just as used in the V-shaped fishweirs.
In areas where available, stones were used to create the barriers. In other areas, Connaway said wooden stakes driven into stream beds and other organic materials were utilized.
“I would imagine they just took cane or small limbs woven between them and they funneled the fish into the trap,” Connaway said.
The Sturdivant fishweir was of similar construction. It was created with posts and mats made of woven cane between them. According to a report from MDAH, radiocarbon dating dated the weir to some time in the 1400s.
However, some of the material was dated as recently as recently as the 1600s, suggesting it had been rebuilt over time.
Had Shell also found a pre-historic fishweir? Initial evidence suggested he had.
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A pre-historic Native American camp
After posting photos of his find on social media, Shell received comments that it could be various things such as branches of a buried tree, cypress knees or remains of a bridge.
None really added up, though. There are no cypress trees on the property. A bridge most likely would not have been constructed diagonally across the creek. Also, the stakes were in a straight line and seemingly too evenly spaced to be tree branches.
Then there were other indicators. Shell has found hundreds of stone projectile points in his garden indicating a prehistoric camp.
That came as no surprise to him. The site is on high ground, has three springs that flow year-round and the creek which could have provided fish as well as gravel to make tools; all desirable features, Shell said.
“I probably have 200 points and thousands of chips,” Shell said. “As much as I’ve found in that spot, they had to have been here for multiple generations.”
Connaway’s opinion is that it is a fishweir, but after more detective work determined it was not made by the same people who crafted the projectile points.
He said the points were Late Archaic Period styles fashioned about 3,000 years ago. He said those inhabitants could have built a fishweir in the creek, but it would be long gone.
Then there is the point on one of the stakes.
Fishweir could be 200 or more years old
Shell pulled one of the stakes out of the ground and found it had been sharpened at an angle with a flat face and not splintered or burned to a point as Connaway said prehistoric people would have done.
“I think his is historic because the post he pulled out was cut at an angle with an axe or saw,” Connaway said. “It’s not prehistoric, but that’s about all we know. It could go back to whoever first settled that site.”
How old is it? We may never know. According to the website visitbrookhavenms.com, Brookhaven was founded in 1818 and grew as a trading post. So, it could be 200 or more years old.
Regardless, it’s a significant find for Shell.
“To me, history needs to be shared so it isn’t lost,” Shell said. “It’s a real neat thing — something that was lost for 100, 150 or 200 years. I love the outdoors, so to me it’s just neat, neat, neat.”
Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or [email protected]. Follow Clarion Ledger Outdoors on Facebook and @BrianBroom on Twitter.
