Collector Spotlight- John Davis

December 2025

My name is John Davis. I am 72 years along, I’ve been married for 50 years, I have 3 children, 2 daughters and a son. I was raised in South Carolina on a farm for the first 10 years of my life before I was uprooted and moved to Mandan ND, my mother and grandparents hometown, my grandmother had come to North Dakota in a covered wagon when she was a baby., crazy.

I always enjoyed hearing all the exciting tales of Custer and the Indians. It wasn’t long before my grandfather took me to an earthlodge site.

I didn’t get completely hooked until I was in my mid 20s and found a besant site so full of artifacts it was crazy. My record for a one day outing was 25 points and 50 thumb scrapers, Now I was bit hard by the bug.
In the eighties my shotguns got dusty and I started getting a lot of guff from my hunting friends and some grief from the other half when most of my free time was spent out searching for artifacts.
I started observing some interesting areas while commuting to work at the power plants near Knife River. This led me to go visiting with the farmers and landowners in that area. I met many other interesting folks who also had a love for artifact hunting. We often shared our philosophies and stories of our finds as well as introducing them to even more enthusiasts. Decades later this network of ” head hunters” had spread not only North and South Dakota but throughout the country, many of which I am still in contact with. I have learned so much about Indian and Paleo artifacts by endless reading of books and maps, hours and miles walking the fields and my associations with all the many individuals that have found pleasure in this great pastime of artifact hunting and collecting.

For the last 10 years I have been lucky enough to have my daughter to go out with and we have had some great finds.

One of the most memorable of our hunting days was when my daughter and I came across a newly exposed woodland site where we picked up 50 points,100 thumb scrapers, numerous knives and other artifacts. beating the previous record by quite a lot.

That was one day my daughter and I will never forget. A few of the things I have found are pictured above. Some of my collection is featured in the 2007 Lar Hothem “Rare and Unusual Indian Artifacts” Identification and value guide.

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