8 Bangor Daily News, Monday, August 25, 1958 STATE AND EXAMINE RELICS-Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd Fernald of Gouldsboro examine a ring made from agate found in an Indian shellheap near her father's home in Sorrento. Fernald has explored many shellheaps in the Frenchman's Bay region. (Crane Photo) Variety Of Indian Relics Unearthed At Gouldsboro Bone implements were quite BY JONAS CRANE in the shell heaps and a GOULDSBORO, Aug. 24 great common variety harpoons women were of Many years, possible a thousand, unearthed. The Indian before the first "rusticator" came also made many ornaments from Bar Harbor, the Passama- French- quoddy to Indians used the re- bone. Some of the beads show man's Bay region as a summer sugar evidence of meticulous work which After the April maple the would indicate that making orna- the harvest sort. was finished and began ments was a pleasant task for of planted, the Indians care- Indian ladies. Various kinds the crops make preparations for a Desert shell pottery heaps and all of it was were also common in grit to free summer on Mount or shell tempered. Island. But pleasure was not the They main Indian Grave for their journey. on reason believed that the Mountains The grave in the bottom Gouldsboro men found an of Desert Island supplied old- a Indian of the mounds that contained a Mount that would guard the dis- one skeletons of a woman and sters charm against the demons that swirling the It was completely covered covered child red ochre and was guised and sucked the life out long themselves as of with with black humus with a large the snow the old people during the stone Being in the bottom of the the platform to cover winter months Dug For Relics mound grave. it is probable that Fernald of Gouldsboro Mu- read were among the first Indians Lloyd for the Robert Abbe several to visit this region. worked in Bar Harbor for heaps Fernald remembers his work in- seum digging in shell of for the Abbe Museum as both summers of the summer visits teresting and exciting. the for relics Indians. There are 14 Taft's In- "Digging into a shell mound is shell heaps from the dian in West Gouldsboro to vield- like book,' he explains. "Each a turning the pages of a his- Falls Point in Sullivan. They have of tory of shells represented We ed days when the Indians many interesting souvenirs danced layer separate and distinct year. of around had not been used that for dirt that accumulated, when a a could even tell by the layers and vacations. Apparently popular the feasted during their clambakes summer one of the most time cape mound showed seven it were features of these vacations. been used for The Taft's Point shell mound that years located on a point of land of is into the southern part 135 Jones' juts Cove. It is more than wide. feet long and about 90 feet it High winds on all four sides ridges of land protect and from must have been a cozy spot for it the early "rusticators" to en- joy their feasts. Covered With Soil the white man came, the heap became covered with soil. It After was unused and gradually was under cultivation for more than a 50 years and was later used as of the shell mound was forgotten top hay field. In time the existance until erosion wore away the soil and exposed the shells. When the late Fletcher Wood, was president of the Mu- who learned of this, he employ- boro man, Vernon Moore, to dig seum, ed Fernald and another Goulds- in the heap for relics. When the the digging operations started had men fire pits from two to clams found that the mound four many in diameter where the had feet been cooked. The most of of them were simply holes scraped these pits were stoned, but some in the sand. Stone Objects The heaps produced many stone and plummets. The plummets and objects including hammerstones had been carefully worked down had shaped into fish lures that small ringed necks for holding of the lines. Apparently some rugged work as many of them these had been used for more were broken. Most of the hammerstones were of made from granite and many them appeared to have been new- ly made when the heaps were abandoned for some reaso Slate lances were also plentify in the mounds and many of the were similar to those found i the graves of the Red Paint In dians in Maine and other part of New England. Since onl broken lances were found the were apparently highly prized probably because they were hard to make. Therefore, when the the good camners lances left with they them. took all of The shell heaps also contained many sizes of adz blades which featured straight line cutting erges. These implements were also very similar to the same type tools found in the Red Paint graves. Grooveless axes, knives. and many other implements were un- earthed by the Gouldsboro men. The knives were so constructed that there was no shafts or them. Although most of the tools were of the same pattern, the arrow- heads were in many varieties in the different layers of shells in- dicatino that from year to year the Indians tried to improve this important hunting implement. Find Scrapers Among the interesting items in the finds were the schapers wining were made from very hard material such as quartz. chert and agate. Some of this appeared to have come from the Great Tabos Region. which would in- dirate that Indians covered a wide range of territory in the old days. Dr. William Duncan Strong. in one of his books. mentions that he found scrapers similar to those in Gouldsboro, as far away as Labrador.