Donna Hogg has fond memories of days spent with her husband, Wayne, and their three children - Tim, Micki and Roxi - exploring the countryside around Callaway. It was a different time then, without cell phones and video games. Quality family time was not considered a luxury - it was the norm.

One of the favorite activities of the Hogg family was looking for treasurer - particularly old Indian artifacts. “We would go out together as a family on weekends and take a picnic lunch and all the kids and both of us would look in the plowed fields after it had rained to find artifacts,” Donna recalled. “We would gather them all together and put them into frames.”

“We always found more than you did,” daughter Micki Newton chimed in, to which Donna responded, “You were closer to the ground!” They both laughed as they shared the memory.

Donna said the family didn’t often have a set destination, but those times too have changed. “They used to plow fields more than they do now.” Micki shared that the family also used to explore along the river banks. “Somebody would tell us they had found stuff there years ago, so we would go look. We did dig out where Steve Miller lives now and found some things,” said Donna.

Wayne’s fascination with searching out Indian artifacts was the result of him helping out a friend, Donna explained. “Wayne and Herb G’Schwind got together after Herb had lost a son in a car accident. He was really down in the dumps, so Wayne wanted to get him interested in something. So they started going out and doing things. They went out to a canyon and went through an old cave where gunslingers used to be held up, but I imagine that is all infested with cedar trees now.”

Those explorations piqued Wayne’s interest and eventually led to the outings with his family gathering artifacts. The Hoggs and the G’Schwinds had been good friends for years, Donna said, and both couples were heavily involved with the Seven Valleys Museum. So there was never a question about where the artifacts would be housed.

A Native American display at the museum is now home to several large frames featuring arrowheads collected by the Hogg family on those outings. That display also features articles of Native American clothing, tools and other items used in daily life on the prairie. And what Indian display would be complete without a buffalo head?

“The fire department was having a buffalo feed so they went to a game farm and shot this buffalo, and of course nobody wanted the head so Wayne had it mounted and it hung in our house for years till we finally got sick of it,” Donna laughed.

Micki also had the buffalo head for a time hanging in her home. Now it is proudly viewed by hundreds of visitors each year who come through the museum.

Besides arrowheads the family also found pieces of pottery and pipes. “Most of those were broken and had tractors run over them,” Donna said.

Micki said those outings with her parents not only continue to hold great memories for her, she still has some habits that resulted from the explorations. “When I was young and we walked to school every day I was always coming up with a bunch of crap in my pocket. But when we were little we were always taught to look to the ground for arrowheads. And to this day when I walk I look down, looking for treasures,” she laughed.

While the family thoroughly enjoyed their arrowhead hunts, the day together included other activities as well. “We would take off an hour or two and go fishing if we were over by the river, it was just kind of a Sunday outing for us,” said Donna.

Besides the framed artifacts on loan at the museum, Donna also still has several pieces at home. Little did this family know that while they were having fun and creating memories, they were also preserving an important piece of local history.