Pike County artifact travels into space

QUINCY, Ill. (AP) - A stone spear point from Pike County is one of the few archaeological artifacts to travel with an astronaut into space.

The (Quincy) Herald-Whig (http://bit.ly/2oVxPGr) reports from Denver that astronaut Kjell Lindgren (CHELL LIND-gren) approached the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in 2014 before a 141-day tour aboard the International Space Station. He offered to take something from the museum with him.

Museum officials selected a 13,000-year-old Clovis point after considering size constraints, rareness and durability. The object was chosen for its connection to the first people to occupy the prehistoric Americas.

Officials say both the tool and the space station are tangible symbols of human wanderlust and the ability to break through barriers into unknown territory.

Lindgren and the Clovis point returned to Earth in late 2015.

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Information from: The Quincy Herald-Whig, http://www.whig.com