Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument
historic place
Alibates Flint Quarries National Monument, located in Fritch, Texas, in Potter County, was established on March 10, 1965, to preserve a significant historic place. For thousands of years, people came to the red bluffs above the Canadian River to extract flint. This high-quality, rainbow-hued flint was crucial for their existence, used for tools and weapons. Beginning about 13,000 years ago, the Ice Age Clovis culture used Alibates flint to craft spear points for hunting Columbian mammoths. Later, between approximately 1150 and 1450 CE, the Antelope Creek people inhabited this area, building stone-slabbed houses and excavating many of the hundreds of quarry pits found here. The flint was widely traded across the Great Plains and beyond. The working of Alibates flint represents one of the earliest and longest-lived industries in early America. This site offers evidence of continuous human use of a vital resource for millennia.