The Easterling Collection
Although the days of the Caddo Indians and other tribes of east Texas have faded into the pages of history books, the Easterling collection spans a 10,000-year period and indicates almost continuous human occupancy in Franklin County.
Collected by Mr. Don Easterling near the banks of the Sulphur River, these artifacts represent a stone-age culture. The earlier items are from the nomadic hunter-gatherer stage before the Indians adopted a village lifestyle.
This extensive collection of artifacts on display in the Fire Station Museum offers a rare glimpse into the lifestyle of the Caddo Indians.
We have a box with flint available for children to handle. Check out the box of flint blades. Remember, these are stone-age people. They did not produce metal blades. Pick up a piece of flint and imagine how hard these people worked to butcher a deer (or even a rabbit) when they worked with stone. They lived in settled villages along the creek bottoms in our county; even today we find evidence of the past. These are artifacts found along the Sulphur River in our county. The pottery vessels on display were made from clay dug, shaped and fired in our county. Come and ponder the past; we are occupying the same space across the centuries.
