Several years ago, I had a call from Tom Bowen in Seneca. He said that he and his wife, Totie, had a rare Cherokee artifact, and they were getting on up in years and were trying to figure out what to do with it.
Their description of the artifact was so incredible that I agreed that my wife, Jane, and I would come over and look. When I actually held the large, crescent-shaped medallion in my hand, I was truly in awe of the workmanship that would have been required to craft it from a raw piece of stone. I asked the Bowens how they came into possession of it.
Tom said the story was shrouded in mystery, but Totie’s father, Pete Nimmons, owned the farm that was the site of the Cherokee town of Keowee, across the Keowee River from old Fort Prince George. He was periodically visited by a small party of Cherokees who would come down from North Carolina to cut river cane for making baskets. and to fish for shad in the river.
Then, sometime around 1898, the Cherokees presented Nimmons with the artifact, and said that it was a ceremonial medallion that been handed down to them, and none of the Cherokees seemed to be interested in preserving it. They said they trusted him to keep it safe and pass it along to others who would do the same. Pete then said he would tell Tom the rest of the story later. Unfortunately, not long after that, Pete died in a forest fire.
I told Tom and Totie that I would send a photo of the artifact to my archaeologist friend, Tommy Charles, who along with Chris Moore literally wrote the book on Native American artifact identification in South Carolina.
Tommy said it was a “spatulate spud medallion” which would have been worn only during certain ceremonial functions, and was, in fact, quite rare. He also cautioned that there was a flourishing market in fake artifacts around the turn of the century. He recommended that we go back and look at it with a magnifying glass in full sunlight and look to see if the scratches all went in one direction (indicating it was sanded on a machine), or more random and uneven.
When we went back to the Bowens’ home, I knew within two minutes that this was the real deal: an authentic, hand-crafted Cherokee ceremonial artifact. Then the question turned to what to do with it?
Tommy and I both felt that it was worthy of the Smithsonian, or the South Carolina Museum, but might never be displayed in either of those museums. I suggested to the Bowens that the best place for it was the Pickens County Museum of Art & History, and that it ought to be located in a stand-alone display, along with the story behind it.
I contacted Daniel James, who was, at the time, director of the Pickens County Museum of Art & History. He was thrilled at the prospect of displaying the rare artifact. The storied stone medallion is now on permanent display at the Pickens County Museum of Art & History. Check it out.
Dennis Chastain is a Pickens County naturalist, historian and former tour guide. He has been writing feature articles for South Carolina Wildlife magazine and other outdoor publications since 1989.
