Statement of Significance (as of designation - January 3, 2001):
The Hester Site was a major campsite used by Middle and Late Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic peoples between 9000 and 7000 B.C. The major activity at this site was the manufacture of chipped stone projectile points and tools for hunting and butchering of wild game. In the Early Archaic Period these site activities continued as stone tools used in wood working and processing of wild plant foods were added to the tool kit. Repeated annual occupations created intact stratified deposits which have proven of great significance in documenting stylistic changes in stone projectile points over time. These tools were the keys to understanding the chronology of Paleo-Indian and Early Archaic cultural periods over a large area of the Southeastern United States. The site has the potential to yield significant information on how and when the Southeast was settled, lithic technologies of the earliest cultures, and the chronology of distinctive tool types.