Past may be destroyed

Mark Willis and several of his friends have spent decades combing the fields, stream banks and woods north of Greensboro in search of lost treasure.


Their quest, which borders on an obsession, doesn't involve glittering gems, tidbits of precious metal or anything else of much financial value. In fact, the average person would be hard-pressed to distinguish some of their more significant finds from the average field stone.

But the Native American artifacts they have collected tell rich stories of vanished cultures spanning 10,000 years on a Piedmont landscape that has undergone massive changes, perhaps none more dramatic than those of the past five or 10 years.