47th annual Indian Artifact Show
What began 47 years ago with just five tables has grown into one of the region’s most anticipated showcases of Native American history. On Sunday, October 25, 8am-3pm the Native American Indian Artifact Show returns to the Monticello School Gymnasium, 334 South Main Street, Monticello, WI
Collectors and the simply curious will find rows of displays featuring stone tools, projectile points, pottery fragments, and other cultural materials representing thousands of years of human history in the Upper Midwest. Some pieces on view dates back as far as 15,000 years, the Ice Age era, when early people hunted woolly mammoth across the landscape.
This year’s show is expected to fill more than 85 tables. A testament to both the depth of local collections and the event’s staying power. Veteran exhibitors will be on hand to discuss how artifacts were made and used, the differences between materials like chert and quartzite, and the importance of proper documentation and ethical collecting.
Visitors are invited to bring their own artifacts for on-site identification. Experienced exhibitors will offer insights into types, dates, and uses. Knowledgeable exhibitors will help with basic typology, likely time periods, and regional context, and educational service that has made the show especially popular with families, students, and landowners who’ve found items in fields or along stream beds.
Organizers note that the show’s mission is educational: to spark curiosity, encourage respect for Native American cultures past and present, and promote responsible stewardship of artifacts and the stories they carry. While buying and trading among exhibitors may occur, the atmosphere is decidedly museum – like, with many displays focused on teaching rather than transactions.
Whether you spend ten minutes or two hours, the experience offers a rare opportunity to see and hold history that predates written records by millennia.
The boy scout troop # 106 will have a lunch stand.
The 4th grade students have been working very hard at making Indian villages from all natural materials.
For more information, please contact Steve or Janet Gobeli 608-329-4781 or 608-371-3040.