Gary Stemmed Projectile Point: Identification, Age & Range

How to identify a Gary Stemmed point

Check two things: the stem and the thickness. The stem contracts from the shoulders down to a rounded or pointed base, though a minority of examples instead show a slightly expanding stem with a convex base. And unlike many thin, finely made dart points, Gary points are noticeably thick, typically 9 to 10 mm, elliptical in cross section, and chunky in the hand.

Overall length runs 35 to 85 mm, with rare examples outside that range, and shoulder width spans 20 to 50 mm. The triangular blade may be straight-edged or convex, and occasionally concave on resharpened pieces. Shoulders can carry a slight barb, sit straight across, or on some points taper upward into the blade. Flaking is random and generally utilitarian rather than fine.

The type is famously variable. Researchers have split it into named groups, including Camden, LeFlore, Mabin, Maybon, and Melvern, and Cambron argued the type needed even further subdivision. Practically, if your point fits the thick-bodied, contracting-stem description above, Gary is a strong bet across most of its range.

Age and where it's found

Gary points date from roughly 3,500 to 1,900 B.P., from the Late Archaic into the Early Woodland. The type is grouped in the Dickson Contracting Stem Cluster, a set of look-alike points mostly tied to the Adena culture of the Ohio River valley; Gary matches those points in form, age, and general geography but was not itself an Adena product.

Geographically, Gary points blanket the central and southern reaches of the Mississippi drainage, and nowhere are they denser than in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.

Similar and related types

• Adena Stemmed — Thinner and typically better finished, with a rounded stem, and centered on the Ohio Valley rather than the western Gulf South.
• Morrow Mountain Projectile Point — A Southeastern Middle Archaic point that is thousands of years older, with a short tapering stem and weak shoulders.
• Langtry — A west Texas contracting-stem type with more angular shoulders and a squared, often slightly concave base.
• Dickson — A thinner, more finely flaked contracting-stem point of the same cluster, centered farther north in the Mississippi Valley.