[Rockhounds] The Collecting Eye

[J. R. Hodel]

Regarding having the eye to see specimens on the ground. 

Danny was my rock collecting buddy for many years. He also had a frabjous collection of local Native American artifacts mostly from walking plowed farm fields and observing closely. He would always encourage me to walk first, and coming behind me would pick up a dozen artifacts for every little chip I would find.
It wasn't quite as bad working on mineral localities, where I was able to hold my own, but Danny really had the eye for arrowheads and potsherds. He could look over a freshly turned tobacco field, or corn, and tell you where the cooking hearths were, where the pottery was, where the guys with the knack would flake flint for tools, just from seeing the colors of the dirt. Then he would go pick up good stuff, in a field where the owner's family had been collecting every spring for a hundred years.
An amazing talent for anyone. RIP buddy!