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About
“The
Spot”
We are sellers that have a passion for both Indian Artifacts, and gold
nuggets. We have been committed to both areas for many, many years. The artifacts we offer
are a combination of our personal collections, and other major
collections that have been acquired over the years.
The Spot
is a member of both the Authentic Artifact Collectors Association (AACA)
and Arrowpack. We support the goals of both organizations, and abide by
their sales guidelines, which includes a 14-day money back warranty of
authenticity for any artifact that is purchased from
The Spot.
See below for our full return policy.
Things
that we love:
1.Beautiful,
and well-made spear and arrow points!
2.Clean and well polished Colombia River Axe heads!
3. Unique Pre-Colombian pottery!
Things we Don’t Love:
1.Fake spear and arrowhead points.
2. People who make and sell fake points to the
unsuspecting
public.
3. People who knowingly buy or sell illegally acquired
About
The Cargos
The Cargo Mountains have been a favorite location for gold mining since
the time of the early Spanish explorers. Evidence exists indicating that
mining in the Cargos started in the early 1780’s, which would make this
possibly the oldest gold mining area in California. During the Great
Depression up to a thousand or more miners tried to scrape out enough
gold to buy food for the next day! The conditions were harsh, water was
scarce, and temperatures rose to above 120 degrees during the broiling
summers.
As
with many other locations mined prior to the advent of the metal
detector, the “old timers” did a great job of finding what we consider
today as the “easy” gold. The gold in the Cargos is primarily nuggets
washed from the old mountains down to bedrock in the Cargo canyons.
Current mining operations are a combination of both modern equipment
including scrapers, front loaders, and metal detectors, along with
traditional dry washers. But no matter how you attack the problem, the
work is difficult, and the climate can still be down right mean!
Collecting
Western and Inland Northwest Artifacts
Over the years it has become painfully apparent there are few ways for
the collector to acquire Western, Inland Northwest and Colombia River
points.
This situation has been caused by several factors that have made
acquisition difficult:
First
the laws in the Western States have evolved so that it is illegal to
“dig” for any artifacts unless the dig is authorized by the State.
Second,
many areas, which would yield wonderful points are within Indian
Reservations, or State or National Forrest, which precludes collecting.
As an example, 65% of the land in the State of Idaho is either State or
National Forrest! As a side note, this is why Idaho remains one of the
poorest states in the nation. 65% of the land in the State does not
generate any property tax!
Third,
and most significant, is the building of dams on both the Colombia and
Snake Rivers that flooded all of the old living sites on these major
Rivers.
The upshot of the above is that to obtain artifacts a collector must
have the finances to purchase large old collections as they may become
available. This requires the collector to spend significant amounts of
money, and therefore may not be an option for many, many collectors.
At
The Spot
we
have been collecting for many years, and therefore we are able to offer
artifacts that are generally unavailable without buying an entire
collection. Sure everyone can come across a few points here and there,
but unfortunately they are not usually the point(s) that you want to
fill a hole in you collection. Hopefully, our offerings will help you
complete your collection. That is, if a collection is ever “complete.”
Northwest
points are potentially an excellent investment.
As everyone is aware, in many parts of our Country, arrowhead hunting
is a wonderful pastime that brings new finds into collections every
year. This is not the case in the Northwest. As a result, the law of
supply and demand indicates that prices for Western artifacts will
continue to escalate.
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