It is our greatest pleasure to be able to offer this EXTREMELY RARE, HIGHLY UNIQUE, once in a lifetime offering of the Famous Chenoweth / Gaffney Collections from Bodega Bay, California as published in the Bodega Bay Anthology Archaeological assemblage

WITHOUT A DOUBT THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT WEST COAST AMERICAN INDIAN ARTIFACT COLLECTION IN PRIVATE HANDS EVER OFFERED FOR SALE!!!!

Click on the Individual Photos above for an enlarged view

SALE OF THE CHENOWETH AND GAFFNEY COLLECTIONS FROM BODEGA BAY, SONOMA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA ...

WHAT'S INCLUDED IN AND WITH THIS COLLECTION:

The four long blades pictured on the cover of “The Bodega Bay Anthology of the Hardy Chenoweth and Rose Gaffney Collections” magazine and also the second set of four blades pictured within, are the only ones known! (There may be other blades of this type as an article in “HOBBIES” Magazine (July 1933) mentions diggers finding some examples from Bodega Bay of this type but the seller has gone to great pains trying to find those blades and has no idea of their whereabouts.) What is important, this culture on the shores of Bodega Bay in northern California may have been the beginning of a culture that moved inland to California’s central valley where “Stockton Curve” artifacts are found. The blades have been further authenticated by two independent labs to be nearly one thousand years old using the obsidian hydration testing process, the gold-standard for obtaining an accurate age of obsidian artifacts.  This culture appears to have disappeared and the mound abandoned around 1100 AD and was NOT an ancestral Miwok inhabited site. Did these people move to the Stockton area of the California Central Valley having been pushed out by the Miwoks? We may never know.

Included with the artifact collection is an unedited, hardbound copy of “The Bodega Bay Anthology of the Hardy Chenoweth and Rose Gaffney Collections” which is a compilation of two articles published in separate “PREHISTORIC AMERICAN” magazines.  The artifacts for sale are all shown in the “Anthology publication" pictured above. Also included are the original “PREHISTORIC AMERICAN” issues.

The owner is selling EVERYTHING pictured in the "Bodega Bay Anthology" he published with the exception of the wooden frames shown on pages 26 and 27 and one of the blades from Gaffney shown on page 17. The photos on page 26 and 27 were taken BEFORE the removal of these artifacts and these artifacts are included with the artifacts for sale as shown in the Gaffney portion of the "Anthology" publication. The wood frames now belong to others. The owner only purchased twelve of the frames and selected all of the unbroken blades to be pictured in the “Anthology publication” and are what is included for sale with this offering. THE ANTHOLOGY CLEARLY SHOWS ALL OF THE ARTIFACTS FOR SALE with the noted exceptions above!!!! To reiterate, the owner is selling EVERYTHING contained in the "Bodega Bay Anthology:" magazine with the exceptions specified above.

Besides the artifacts in the “Anthology”, the collection ALSO INCLUDES extensive documentation:

(ALL DOCUMENTATION LISTED BELOW ARE THE ORIGINALS EXCEPT WHERE NOTED. ALSO, ALL OF THE DOCUMENTS HAVE BEEN SCANNED AND STORED ON CD DISCS AND THE BUYER WILL RECEIVE THESE AS WELL.)

The lucky buyer will be surprised to receive MORE rather than less with this purchase and should realize that this is the sum total of decades of research and accumulating a mass of material. 

A COPY of Hardy Chenoweth's original site report and his site map of the Kee Mound.

ALL of the original correspondence between Rose Gaffney and Dr. Tom King, who was the founding archaeologist of the Northwestern California Archaeological Society, who subsequently become nationally known as a leading archaeologist having built his career around work in what is commonly called “cultural resource management.”

Original carbon copies of the letters circa 1949, between the University of California, Berkeley's Fenenga and Hardy Chenoweth promising the artifacts would be returned to him.

Original "HOBBIES" magazine, July 1933 describing digging at this same site known as the Kee mound, or CA-SON299.

A very rare copy of Honoria Tuome’s Sonoma County history with photographs of some of “Boss” Meeker’s artifacts which are now part of the  Chenoweth Collection.

One copy each of the Prehistoric American magazines featuring the Chenoweth and Gaffney Collections.

Numerous notes and other ephemera from the seller's many years of research including lab reports for Carbon 14 tests from the University of Arizona. Also included, Obsidian Hydration Test reports from two different labs determining the ages of the artifacts from this site.

A DVD of the UNPUBLISHED UCAS (University of California Archaeology Survey) site report by Frank Fenenga Part I, and a photocopy of Part II. This report has all of the burial records and numerous black and white photographs of the graves and  artifacts in-situ as found by UCAS, 1949. It shows the elevations and so forth. THIS IS A SPECIAL PIECE OF HISTORY!!!!

An original Santa Rosa Press Democrat Sunday Section newspaper showing the Chenoweth and Gaffney collections. This three-page article is shown well on page 2 and 23 of the “Anthology.”

An original Petaluma Argus Courier,  Centennial Edition, four section newspaper article, published in 1955 with several articles regarding local Indians, featuring an article written by Hardy Chenoweth and on the front page, Hardy’s wife displaying the four great blades in this collection.

Also included are numerous, very hard to find original published site reports related to the McClure Complex, and Berkeley Pattern (of which this site is part), from around San Francisco Bay and Marin and Sonoma Counties. A veritable library of books, pamphlets, periodicals, Newspaper articles etc. are also included with the collection.

One  set of acrylic copies professionally molded from the four curved blades and the “Wings-of-Stone.”

Several outstanding mortars and pestles from the Chenoweth collection which were not shown in the “Anthology” publication will also go to the buyer as part of the sale.