MONTICELLO - For Jan Krahenbuhl, the daily work routine is the usual but important stuff of small-town banking - paperwork, numbers, clients, accounts.
But there, surrounding her banker's desk at Woodford Bank, the executive vice president has something else to ponder.
On the wall are artifacts left by peoples who roamed the Sugar and Pecatonica River valleys thousands of years ago.
The intricate colors and shapes of the arrowheads, ax heads and tools - part of the Ralph Hammerly collection of ancient native American artifacts - have a spiritual quality to them, and an aura of timeless history, she said.
"I always think 'if these pieces could speak to us what would they say?'," said Krahenbuhl.
The artifacts on her walls are only a part of the collection her brother, Jeff Anderson, purchased from the son of Hammerly after the noted collector died. Other pieces from the collection - along with Native American treasures from Green County Circuit Judge Jim Beer - will be on full display Saturday.
That's when the Badger State Historical Society holds its 27th annual Native American Indian artifact show at Monticello School, 334 S. Main St. The show runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and features more than 80 tables of artifacts, including pottery and arrowheads of all shapes, sizes and materials. Many tribes and eras will be represented, but the Hammerly collection centers on some of the oldest pieces found in this region.
Anderson's collection represents about half what was collected by Hammerly, who began finding items on area farms as a young boy, said Janet Gobeli, who is helping to organize the show. Some of the artifacts in the collection are 10,000 to 12,000 years old, she said.
Gobeli, whose father was a friend of Hammerly's, says she too wonders about these ancient peoples - how they lived, died and interacted with each other. The pieces also reveal the resourcefulness of mankind over centuries before the existence of all but the most primitive technology.
"These people had to make a living off the land completely," said Gobeli, who is working on the exhibit with her husband, Steve. "They could not run off to Wal-Mart."
No-till agriculture has decreased the number of artifacts found in rural areas, making existing collections even more vital to understanding the indigenous peoples who used to call the region home, Krahenbuhl said. Gobeli agreed.
"Some of these pieces were only used in burials and ceremonies," she said. "There is so much history in them."
But there, surrounding her banker's desk at Woodford Bank, the executive vice president has something else to ponder.
On the wall are artifacts left by peoples who roamed the Sugar and Pecatonica River valleys thousands of years ago.
The intricate colors and shapes of the arrowheads, ax heads and tools - part of the Ralph Hammerly collection of ancient native American artifacts - have a spiritual quality to them, and an aura of timeless history, she said.
"I always think 'if these pieces could speak to us what would they say?'," said Krahenbuhl.
The artifacts on her walls are only a part of the collection her brother, Jeff Anderson, purchased from the son of Hammerly after the noted collector died. Other pieces from the collection - along with Native American treasures from Green County Circuit Judge Jim Beer - will be on full display Saturday.
That's when the Badger State Historical Society holds its 27th annual Native American Indian artifact show at Monticello School, 334 S. Main St. The show runs from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and features more than 80 tables of artifacts, including pottery and arrowheads of all shapes, sizes and materials. Many tribes and eras will be represented, but the Hammerly collection centers on some of the oldest pieces found in this region.
Anderson's collection represents about half what was collected by Hammerly, who began finding items on area farms as a young boy, said Janet Gobeli, who is helping to organize the show. Some of the artifacts in the collection are 10,000 to 12,000 years old, she said.
Gobeli, whose father was a friend of Hammerly's, says she too wonders about these ancient peoples - how they lived, died and interacted with each other. The pieces also reveal the resourcefulness of mankind over centuries before the existence of all but the most primitive technology.
"These people had to make a living off the land completely," said Gobeli, who is working on the exhibit with her husband, Steve. "They could not run off to Wal-Mart."
No-till agriculture has decreased the number of artifacts found in rural areas, making existing collections even more vital to understanding the indigenous peoples who used to call the region home, Krahenbuhl said. Gobeli agreed.
"Some of these pieces were only used in burials and ceremonies," she said. "There is so much history in them."