Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
David I. Bushnell, Jr., first aroused wide interest in the fluted points found in Virginia. He accomplished this primarily by an article in the June 9, 1934 issue of the Literary Digest, in which he announced the discovery of “two Folsom points” in Virginia. This article and subsequent references to these two “points of recognized Folsom type” (Bushnell, 1935, pp. 35-6, 56) called special attention to the importance and possibilities of such finds in the East. In 1934, only one collector of Virginia projectile points, Arthur Robertson of Chase City, Virginia, could claim “five or more” of these fluted points (Wells, 1935, pp. 1, 14). However, the intense interest which Bushnell created stimulated a search in Virginia for this rare type of point, with the result that shortly after Bushnell's 1934 announcement, sporadic finds of fluted points having a resemblance to both the Folsom Fluted and the Clovis Fluted began to be noted in various parts of the State. Their occurrence seemed to indicate that there actually was a paleo-Indian in Virginia.
The site here described is the Williamson site, found by John C. Smith and Charles Edgar Gilliam of Petersburg, and Ben C. McCary of Williamsburg, Virginia. Many visits were made to the site in 1949 and 1950. Reverend J. R. McAllister and John Adkins of Dinwiddie, Virginia, gave helpful assistance. Roy Ampy who owns a small part of the site, has been most cooperative. Special acknowledgment is due the Williamsons—Joshua S., John E., and his son Ashley—for permission to do field work so frequently on their land, and for the many hours that they spent literally combing the surface for artifacts of early man.