TOPIC:  THE QUAD SITE The Origin of Paleoindian Research in Alabama 

It has been fifty years since Dr. Frank Soday, Director of Technology with Chemstrand Corporation of Decatur and avocational archaeologist, published the initial report on the Quad site, located near Decatur in northwestern Alabama in the Tennessee Archaeologist (Soday 1954). In the half century since, the site has become one of the most fascinating and important Paleoindian locales in the Southeast and recognized as one of the largest Paleoindian occupations in terms of both acreage and artifact density in the United States (Anderson 1990). Now largely eroded and destroyed by nature since the construction of Wheeler Dam, the silted knolls produce few artifacts, but elicit many memories.  As one interested in the prehistory of the Tennessee Valley, it is sometimes difficult to cross the Tennessee River in the Decatur area and not daydream of days past. Federal antiquity laws now prohibit surface collecting on the site without permits, and thus for the most part we have heard little from the area since the late 1980s. Many researchers (Futato 1996) have noted, however that some collectors are still willing to accept the risk of stiff penalties for an opportunity to discover artifacts on one of the most famous sites in the Southeastern United States.  For the younger army of men and women searching for references on the site, few can be obtained. Most information has been passed through numerous channels by word of mouth or as legends comparable to those told by current Native Americans. Many of the original collectors have joined the men for whose artifacts they searched and thus, as time passes, so does the truth. The author spent a number of evenings and weekends discussing the site and other Paleoindian finds with a few of those men, their identities obscured, but their stories shared for prosperity.