This gunflint was recovered from the Wea Presbyterian Mission in 1997 by Kansas Historical Society archeologists and crew. The gunflint, quarried and manufactured in southern England, and has a single dorsal arris. Gunflints were used to generate a spark in a flintlock musket or pistol and as strike-a-lights for lighting a fire. The excavations at the site revealed foundations for the Mission house, a spring house, and an outbuilding in addition to a filled in well. The Wea Mission (1834-1837) changed functions over time: it served as the Osage River Subagency (1837-1844), the Wea and Piankeshaw Baptist Mission (1844-1857) and then had other occupants until 1909 when the house burned.
Kansas Memory
Kansas Historical Society
English Gunflint from the Wea Mission, 14MM322 - 1