Last evening i was invited to dinner by a retired archeologist friend. We dined on rice and ma mushroom and toadstool concoction from what he picked off his lawn. our conversations take many turns, from duck hunting, to old guns, labrador retrievers, township places and history. At one point he dug out some stone artifacts recovered from southern Indiana caverns . One being a stone that has some opaque/transparent qualities and used for trading- pre European times. One cavern that is now a big tourist attraction was a source for chert and flint and this stone. There are indications th3 natives ventured as far as 3000’ feet into this cavern system. I inquired about their torches. From remnants they determined those were made from peeling shagbark up to three foot lengths. Wrap three or so with another bark and burn them down to a length that was get close to their hand, then start another - the way we used to do sparklers i suppose. This unique stone has been found in sites as far away as Iowa. Some fashioned into a noise making instrument that would have string ran through it and spin the stone, making a buzzing noise. just picking up trivial information to cram into my brain , but the use of our favorite shagbark for exploration and capitalism in ancient times is some more tree trivia we now all have
