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As a Shadow Passes:
The Native American Peoples of the Yadkin Valley
10,000 B. C. - 1700 A. D.
Where did they come from?
When did they come?
What became of them?
A major new exhibit at the Davidson County Historical Museum sheds light on the nearly 12,000-year presence of the Native American people who once lived in North Carolina’s Yadkin River Valley. Settling around 10,000 B. C. in the northern piedmont between the Great Bend and the Narrows of the Yadkin, they left behind scant traces of their history. Their story has been largely lost, or been confused with the history of western American Indian tribes as depicted in popular media.
Fortunately, over time archaeologists have carefully collected, analyzed, and recorded the archeological record of this prehistoric world. Wake Forest University’s Museum of Anthropology and Research Laboratory of Archaeology at the University of North Carolina have generously loaned almost 200 artifacts for this exhibit. The second floor courtroom exhibit traces the Native American presence through the Paleo-Indian, Archaic, and Woodland cultural periods, and features an original mural and diorama (scale model) of a Native American village by local artist Chip Holton. A first floor gallery features an archaeology display, complete with a simulated ‘dig.’
 Local author Jim Daniel has written a companion book of the same name that can be purchased at the Museum for $15.00. Signed copies are available.
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