The Loveland Stone Age Fair (Colorado, USA) next weekend celebrates its 75th anniversary, a number that pales in comparison with 13,200 years the age of its oldest artifacts. Everything on exhibit is from private collections and institutions, including a pre-eminent display of points from the Smithsonian Institution. "And everything is legally obtained, all these fantastic collections that have come in from all over the country," says Andy Coca, president of the Loveland Archaeological Society, which sponsors the fair.
     Coca is keenly sensitive to the problem of black-market artifact sales like the federal investigation that recently sentenced two Utah women for stealing more than 800 Indian relics. None of the artifacts at the Stone Age Fair is for sale. Since its 1934 debut in the Weld County hamlet of Cornish, the fair has been strictly educational. The Stone Age Fair has become an annual institution for archaeologists in the Midwest and Rocky Mountain West, luring about 2,500 amateur and professional archaeologists and scientists to Loveland. This year's fair will feature lectures by archaeologists from the Smithsonian Institution, along with flint-knapping demonstrations.
     Stone Age Fair - From 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 27, Pulliam Community Building, 545 Cleveland Ave., Loveland (Colorado USA), free. More info at stoneagefair.com

Source: The Denver Post (20 September 2009)