Pat Howden.com

He retired a couple of years ago after 43 1/2 years at Dean Foods in Darien but still works part time at Sullivan’s Foods. He loves to paint houses and is an avid weightlifter, having done more than 2,000 repetitions of 40 pounds in the bench press.
However, nothing occupies his time, his mind and his heart more than scouring fields and creek beds for American Indian artifacts.
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His collection of about 1,200 pieces includes arrowheads, knife blades, scrapers, ax and spearheads, drills, grinding stones, nutcrackers, weights for fishing nets and fragments of pottery, many of them believed to be between 3,000 and 7,000 years old.
Howden has mapped out four major artifact-hunting areas, but he has stumbled upon his prized trinkets throughout the Big Foot Prairie. Sharon and other sites in Walworth County have produced a bounty of items, as have locations near Richmond, Alden and the nearby Piscasaw Creek in McHenry County.
“Every piece is something good,” Howden said. “I ask myself every time, ‘What do I have here?’

By Dennis West – Back in the days when Pat Howden was a heavy drinker, his Indian name could have been Old Crow or Wild Turkey. But after he quit drinking, and smoking three packs of cigarettes a day, suddenly in the 1970s, it could have been Cold Turkey.

Howden, who lives in Harvard, Ill., has been a U.S. Marine, grocery clerk, worked for Dean Foods, a housepainter and a world record holder in repetitive weight lifting. Both his father, who died when Howden was 11, and his uncle, collected Indian artifacts in the Twin Lakes area. It was sometime before Pat stopped drinking that he began to take an interest in the cigar boxes full of arrowheads and other Indian artifacts. He says it took him two years of searching before he found his first artifact, and then he found two in one day. That got him really excited and today, along with metal detecting, artifact collecting has become an all-consuming hobby.
Howden took his 1,700-piece collection to Geneva Ridge on Sunday, Oct. 13. His pride in the artifacts was apparent as he explained them to the many people who came to see his free exhibit and share their interest with him.
Howden, who has found approximately 1,200 pieces since he began, and 64 pieces so far this year, says the best time to look is in the spring and late fall, but that doesn’t stop him from searching during the rest of the year. He says the best time to look is on a cloudy day when there are no bright areas and shadows to obscure the flint pieces whose shapes he has gotten so he can easily recognize.
He explained to visitors how Native Americans used clay ovens, some pieces of which are in his collection, to break down the structure of the flint so that it could be worked more easily. The tool maker generally kept the stone in the oven for 24 hours before he began to work it.
Among the artifacts on display were a sizer, which is a rock with a groove in it that the toolmaker used to shape, size and sharpen arrowheads.
A rock with a shallow hole in it was used to start fires. The user would place some tinder into the hole, insert a stick and work it back and forth with a bow until it generated enough friction and heat to light the tinder. Howden says he has never seen anyone use such an implement successfully and would be fascinated to do so.
Howden explained that some perfectly-rounded stones in his collection were used to play a game of kickball and/or as missles thrown with a sling as a weapon.
Many of the hundreds upon hundreds of arrowheads in his collection have striations along their sides that make them sharp enough to easily cut paper. These were painstakingly put there by the toolmaker, who learned his craft from an early age.
He has a great many pre-forms – pieces of flint that are in some early stages of preparation. One of his displays consists of five pieces that show the stages of the arrowhead-making process.
He has spent a tremendous amount of time identifying and dating his specimens, most of which are labeled with dates that stretch from the paleolithic period around 14,000 BC to a few hundred years ago. He has two copper arrowheads that were crafted by the copper-mining tribes of Michigan. One is shaped like a traditional arrowhead and the other is cone-shaped to fit over the end of an arrow, much like a target arrow one would buy in a sporting goods store today.
“Arrowheads have different shapes and manufacturing techniques that changed over time,” he says. “He has used books to research when the artifacts were made, then mounted them on felt-covered board and attached the dates when they were made.
Most of Howden’s arrowheads are between 3,000 and 5,000 years old. His searches are usually confined to the area around Big Foot Prairie and Sharon, though he declines to be more specific.
“Any stone that is shiny is a chip or flake from a bigger piece,” he explains. “Smaller arrowheads were used to hunt birds, while the larger ones were used for bigger game. Anything longer than three inches was a lance, or spear, point.”
He has a few axe heads and some pieces of pendants with holes drilled in them to insert a rawhide strand.
“The pendants were usually broken after the wearer died,” he explains, “so it would be very rare to find a whole specimen.”
Howden says he enjoys metal detecting, too. He has found more than 300 gold rings in his searches. One of his most interesting finds was a 1920 class ring.
Lake Geneva History Museum director (name) stopped at Geneva Ridge to ask Howden if he would present a program at the museum in the coming months. Always happy to share his discoveries with others, Howden said he would be happy to do so.

FORT MYERS BEACH: On Fort Myers Beach, a 64-year-old weight lifter tried to the do the unthinkable Wednesday morning. Pat Howden, who calls Southwest Florida home during the winter tried to get into the Guinness Book of World records by bench pressing an absurd 1,460 times.

It was no ordinary day for Pat Howden.

“Today, I’m going to bench press 40 pounds no problem, 1,460 times non stop,” said Howden.

If you’re wondering how a 64-year-old factory worker of 43 years can pull this off, he says after 15 years after conquering an alcohol addiction, he knows a little something about commitment and willpower.

“This is a drive, people say your 64, I feel like I’m 25. If you want to do something bad enough in life, you don’t stay at that same level you just keep working,” said Howden.

So Wednesday morning he got started. At 10:26 a.m., the Fort Myers winter resident slid on his gloves, grabbed a 40 pound bench press bar and began to pump iron.

Howden kept his eyes closed while he’s lifting because he doesn’t want to loose track of how many reps he’s accomplished as he tried to lift his way into the Guinness Book of World Records.

“My family bought me a couple Guinness World Records Books a couple years ago for Christmas and I was looking through and wow, and how many Major League Baseball players are in there, why can’t I be in there?” said Howden.

With the tall task at hand – Howden kept his cool and his promise. At 11:16 a.m., 50 minutes after he started, he had lifted the bar exactly 1,460 times.

“I hold the record right now,” said Howden.

With the heavy lifting done, Howden now has to wait for the Guinness folks to certify the record. “I will submit it and other newspaper clippings, and just submit it all and all you can do is just wait it out,” said Howden.

LOVELAND – Age is just a number to Pat Howden, and so is 5,000 – as in 5,000 tricep lifts.

“Today I’m going to do – if my lungs hold up like they should – I’m going to do 5,000 non-stop,” Howden said.

Doing high-reps and using low weight is common, but Howden takes it to the next level.

“People say you’re crazy,” Howden said.

At Gold’s Gym in Loveland, 67-year-old Howden works out daily, hoping to someday raise money to help others like him.

Pat was an alcoholic for 30 years, but has been sober for the last 18.

“The good Lord saved my life. I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t quit drinking. I don’t condone drinking, but I hit rock bottom,” Howden said.

Howden says he rarely gets tired, and doesn’t even break a sweat during his work-outs. He believes that exercise is a necessity.

“[My] inspiration: eat healthy and how long do you want to live. You’ve got a choice in life. If you don’t exercise you’re not going to live. I’m just a strong advocate on that,” Howden said.

Jessica Leicht contributed to this article.

(KUSA-TV © 2011 Multimedia Holdings Corporation)

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