Mescal Knives from Southern Nevada

A number of mescal knives have been found throughout the southwestern United States, but very few of these have been adequately described in print. As the use or non use of this distinctive type of implement may in the future be of aid in establishing cultural affiliations and migrations of peoples, a brief description of two of these unusual pieces is presented below. The first of these mescal knives came from a small cave, or rock shelter, located about three and one-half miles southeast of the former town of St. Thomas, Nevada, at the foot of Bitter Spring Wash, where the latter enters the Virgin River. This site is now forever covered beneath the waters of Lake Mead, backed up behind Boulder Dam. The cave was excavated in 1936 by Civilian Conservation Corps enrollees under the direction of Junior Foreman Fay Perkins and under the supervision of the National Park Service.