Article Title

The Lake Clear (41SM243) Site and Crotalus horridus atricaudatus

Authors

Mark Walters, Heritage Research Center, Stephen F. Austin State UniversityFollow

Agency

Caddo Archeology Journal

DOI

https://doi.org/10.21112/.ita.2006.1.18

Abstract

I fell heir to a collection of prehistoric Caddo sherds from my late Uncle Sam Whiteside and a location on a 7.5’ topographic map labeled Lake Clear. Sam Whiteside during the period from the mid-1950s to the late 1960s was very active in the East Texas area working through the old East Texas Archeological Society headquartered in Tyler, Texas.

The name Lake Clear was vaguely familiar but a check of local maps failed to reveal its location. However, an older map jolted my memory. The lake had been built on east Mill Creek west of Winona, Texas, as a club lake. For some reason, the project was abandoned after a short period of time and the lake was drained and turned into pasture. Although I have never even visited the site location, but did record it in 2000, I felt that writing this article was justified in order to (1) describe this interesting collection of Caddo sherds and (2) compare one aspect of the sherds—the engraved rattlesnake motif found on several Lake Clear sherds—to other known examples in the Caddo archeological area. This was not a new idea but had been hashed around in prior years by Tim Perttula, Tom Middlebrook, and the late Jim Corbin, among others. Tim Perttula was especially helpful in sharing his notes. Perhaps the most important part of research is knowing when to stop. I realize that other examples of the rattlesnake motif in Caddo pottery will appear in the future, hopefully spurred on by this article, and if someone else would like to take up the subject where I have left off, I would be pleased.

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