The items examined at the Archaeological Roadshow in Bend on Saturday were more than just artifacts to the people who brought them.

They were sentimental pieces found decades ago or pieces with mysterious origins.

A panel of experts in archaeology and geology did their best to identify the items, which ranged from Native American arrowheads to old ranch equipment. The experts did not assess the value of the items.

They simply shared what they knew.

Some people received satisfying answers, while others were left with the mystery still intact.

Rich Niederhof, a retired forestry instructor at Central Oregon Community College, showed the experts a small stone with holes carved in it that his mother found near her home in South Carolina. Niederhof and his mother collected Native American artifacts while he was growing up in South Carolina.

He still looks for artifacts on his 5-acre property north of Bend, he said.

The small stone he brought stumped the experts.

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” said John Zancanella, a retired archaeologist with the Bureau of Land Management, who volunteered on the expert panel.

Niederhof said his best guess for the stone was that it was a fishing weight, but that didn’t add up since it had all the holes.

“Anything I come up with doesn’t make any sense,” he said. “It’s one of those mysteries.”

The Archaeological Roadshow, organized by Portland State University and hosted by the Deschutes Historical Museum, was a first for Bend. The roadshow has gone to Portland and Harney County during the past seven years. It plans to return to Bend next year.

Even visitors without personal artifacts came to enjoy presentations and hands-on activities with archaeologists.

Passersby gathered when Bend resident Steve Navarra started unrolling an old movie screen he’s kept since finding it 30 years ago in a former grange hall south of Bend.

Navarra, a general contractor, recalls helping demolish the grange hall and taking home the movie screen and about 50 theater chairs, which were kept in the hall’s attic. He thinks the movie screen and chairs must have been donated by an old theater. But he was not sure how old the items were or where they came from, he said.

When he spread the movie screen out on the lawn, it offered clues to the local historians at the museum. On the edges of the movie screen were old advertisements from local businesses.

Museum staff were able to pinpoint the advertisements to the 1920s since the phone numbers listed only had two or three digits. One advertisement asked people to phone 88 for George Childs Hardware Co. or phone 20 for Wall St. Hardware.

“It’s great to see everybody excited about it,” Navarra said. “I’ve always loved it.”

Retired Bend resident Sara Langton came to the roadshow with a piece of bannerstone that has been in her family since the early 1900s.

Bannerstones are Native American artifacts often found in the Eastern United States.

Langton’s bannerstone was found on her family’s farm in Indiana, and her grandfather had it assessed by the Smithsonian Institution in 1917.

Langton brought it Saturday to find out how rare it is. Unfortunately, the experts told her bannerstones are commonly found in Indiana, and not as rare as she was hoping.

But the piece still has strong value to Langton and connects her to her family in Indiana. She was happy to learn a little more about it at the roadshow.

“I just thought I’d bring this today and see what they say,” she said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7820, kspurr@bendbulletin.com