Shown are six gunflints of the many that were found at the Canville Trading Post in Neosho County near the Osage Reservation. They were donated to the Kansas Historical Society in 1994. Gunflints were used to generate a spark in a flintlock musket or pistol to ignite the gunpowder and as strike-a-lights for lighting a fire. These six gunflints were made from local cherts. Left to right they show three square gunflint each with a single dorsal arris, a square gunflints with two dorsal arrises, and two small square gunflints, possibly used with a pistol or as strike-a-lights. The Canville Trading Post was established in 1847 by A. B. Canville. When the Osage reservation land was ceded to the United States in 1870, the Osage left for Oklahoma and Canville followed in 1872.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
Gunflints from the Canville Trading Post, 14NO396 - 3
