Priceless!!!

[Raven31557]

I just wanted to share this.
My mother found this in the river in front of her grandparents house when she was a teenager in the early 1940's.
It's hand carved and we're guessing it was lost by an early settler.
Don't know if American Indians used such utensils.
The spoon is 16.25" long and the bowl part holds at least a cup or more.

[ghopper1924]

Hmm, a wooden utensil was found in a river? I couldn't be that old, could it? It seems like the river would have destroyed it long before it could accumulate much age.

[Raven31557]

Hmm, a wooden utensil was found in a river? I couldn't be that old, could it? It seems like the river would have destroyed it long before it could accumulate much age.

I'm guessing it was buried in the mud.
I'll research how long it takes for wood to decay in water.
I never thought of that!!

[Raven31557]

Ship wrecks!!!!!!!!!
 
I would imagine any utensils Native Americans used were carved from bone.

Best Answer:  Yes, there is usually a lot of oxygen in the water, which causes chemical oxidation, and a lot of microbes and bacteria etc that eat the wood. Occasionally, wood can sink in water that has low oxygen content or can get buried by sediments (also reducing the amount of oxygen that can get at the wood); this slows the rate of decay a lot, and so the wood can last for hundreds of years or more. Wood from shipwrecks that happened thousands of years ago is sometimes found.

[KC]

Neat story - and neater that your mom held on to it all these years!    And even neater that you have held dear to it like she did!

Karma Point to you!

[mart]

Looks like a cream scoop !! If so the butterfat would preserved the wood !!  For dipping cream off of milk !!  Lean it sideways and scoop it right off the top !! Looks like its made of oak !!  Could also be used to skim fat off anything cooking !!  Fresh pork comes to mind !!  They used to preserve sausage after killing a hog by frying it and layering the cooked sausage in crocks then covering them with pork fat !!  Fat solidified when cooled sealing off any air and preserving the sausage !!

[ghopper1924]

It looks like it's got a nice patina, and a hole already drilled in the handle so that you can show it off in the kitchen. Pretty cool, even if it's not 10,000 years old 

[cogar]

Wood can last a long time in fresh water.

In the Adirondack Mts. of upstate NY I have seen dams constructed out of logs that are still in good shape after 100+- years. The timber companies would build those “log dams” to form a small lake, then via horse power would drag the timbers/logs down to the edge and roll them into the water. When they accumulated enough logs they would blow out or tear out the log dam …… and KERWOOSH,  ….. down the river went all the dammed up water and the logs.