"Hey, isn't Milwaukee an Indian name?" "Yes, Pete, it is. In fact, it was originally an Algonquin term meaning "the good land." " -- Alice Cooper

Last eve, while planting a hydrangea with Winnie, we shoveled into this chunk of rock. It was clumped with dirt -- I thought it was a piece of a broken terra cotta pot at first and was ready to pitch it over the side of the hill, but it was too heavy and the shape was intriguing, so I hosed it off.

It looks like a scraping tool -- it's a smidge over 4 inches long and it's very ergonomic if I hold it like I wanted to scrape a skin or something -- it's really sharp too.

I've gone from thinking it's a cool shaped rock to considering the possibility that it may be authentic. And the more I consider that it is -- the more geeked and full of wonder I feel, because, dude, what if an actual person used this in my front yard?

I'm going to take it to our local nature center and see what I can find. If it turns out to be something, I may have to do a little more digging around because I found it in fairly undisturbed land -- it's wooded and has never been a farm or developed. I live in a fairly historic and untouched part of my town. Wouldn't it be cool if the field stone I tossed over the edge of the hill were actually one of those rubbing stones and maybe the seed grinding plate is still down there somewhere???

Okay, maybe I go too far, you can't put the shovel in the ground without hitting a stone, but still -- perhaps the clubhouse rests on the same spot as Chief Bull Bear and family once lived.