MONTICELLO — What began 46 years ago with just five tables has grown into one of the region’s most anticipated showcases of Native American history. From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 26, the Native American Indian Artifact Show returns to the Monticello school gymnasium, 334 South Main Street in Monticello.

Collectors and the simply curious will find rows of displays featuring stone tools, projectile points, pottery fragments and other cultural materials representing thousands of years of human history in the upper Midwest. Some pieces on view date back as far as 15,000 years to the Ice Age era, when early people hunted woolly mammoth across the landscape.

This year’s show is expected to fill more than 85 tables — a testament to both the depth of local collections and the event’s staying power. Veteran exhibitors will be on-hand to discuss how artifacts were made and used, the differences between materials like Chert and Quartzite, and the importance of proper documentation and ethical collecting. 

Visitors are invited to bring their own artifacts for on-site identification. Experienced exhibitors will offer insight into types, dates and uses. Knowledgeable exhibitors will help with basic typology, likely time periods, and regional context, an educational service that has made the show especially popular with families, students and landowners who have found items in field or along stream beds.

Organizers note that the show’s mission is educational: to spark curiosity, encourage respect for Native American cultures past and present, and promote responsible stewardship of artifacts and the stories they carry. While buying and trading among exhibitors may occur, the atmosphere is decidedly museum-like, with many displays focused on teaching rather than transactions.

Whether spending 10 minutes or two hours, the guest experience offers a rare opportunity to see and hold history that predates written records by millennia.

Boy Scout Troop #106 will have a lunch stand. The fourth grade students at Monticello School have been working very hard at making native villages from all-natural materials.

For more information, contact Steve or Janet Gobeli at 608-329-4781.