Hidden Treasures Artifact collection a bridge to the past

SANDPOINT — Scattered about the landscape, all but invisible to the untrained eye, are the remnants of centuries — in some cases millennia — past and the people who came before us.

Masquerading as rock chips or bits of gravel along the ground, these artifacts have stories to tell. Sandpoint’s Ralph Sletager began listening to them as a boy and has been enthralled ever since.

For him, the point of resonance for these tales — some physical evidence that reached through time to connect present day with pre-Columbian history — were the arrowheads he’d find secreted away. Some of them had been in plain view all along, while others might only recently have been revealed by erosion or the scuff of a boot on the trail.

“Since I was a kid, I was looking for arrowheads,” Sletager said. “There’s a feeling when you find one, something that makes you start thinking, ‘Who had this? What did they do with it?’”

Wanting to share this curiosity about the past with the public — school kids, in particular — Sletager has filled the walls of the Old Power House with his substantial collection of Native American tools and adornments. To hear him explain it, one comes up with the picture of a man who started collecting single items before moving on to collect collections.

“I guess it started about 50 years ago,” said Sletager. “I would hear about a collection that ended up at a pawn shop or an estate sale and I would kind of ‘rescue’ them.”

Since then, his total collection has grown to include approximately 4,000 items, he estimated.

“I’ve never really counted them,” the collector said.

As he began to acquire more collections, his scope widened to include a larger variety of artifacts.

“I started with arrowheads, but then you start running across these other things that are interesting,” Sletager said, listing items such as grinding bowls, scraping stones, bone breastplates, and weights used for casting nets.

The assortment spans not only eras, but also a broad swath of North America itself, with artifacts that can be traced to the Columbia River, the Nez Perce Tribe, the Southwest and parts of Montana and Alaska.

Sletager spent years working on his ‘artifact eyes’ with little in the way of results at first. Then, as if someone had flipped a switch, the hidden treasures began to reveal themselves.

“Suddenly, one day, I just started seeing them,” he said.

The difference now, he added, is that everything he sees stays right where he spotted it. Sletager believes that’s important for both the preservation of history and out of deference to the cultures associated with the artifacts. His travels to Native American sites around the U.S. have only deepened that conviction.

Working his way down a bucket list of places rich in history, he has traveled to sites such as Chaco Canyon, El Morro, Horseshoe Canyon and the House on Fire ruins to soak up the locations of civilizations that started, flourished and, in some cases, mysteriously faded from memory. Sletager describes them as sacred places, rife with historical significance.

“That’s why I would never take anything from one of these sites,” he said. “In fact, I got to where I quit looking. I haven’t picked up an artifact and kept it in years.”

With such an extensive collection, one might argue, there’s no need to disturb the history that lies on the ground. But instead of keeping these treasures hidden, Sletager has opted to put them on public display, using the Old Power House as his gallery.

“You can spend hours looking at these things,” he said, adding that perusing the collection feels like stepping into a time machine. “Some of these artifacts could be 2,000 years old.”

With no set date for taking down the collection, the owner is hopeful that the historical items will become a magnet for school field trips.

“It’s really for kids,” he said. “I want kids to be able to learn about how all these tools were used.

“I’m also hoping that — like an interpretive center — this becomes a spot where they can come in and appreciate what these people were doing,” he continued. “I see it as a way to bridge cultures.”

The collection is open for public viewing at the Old Power House, located at 120 E. Lake St., during regular business hours. For information on scheduling field trips, call 208-263-3083.