“We have things and stuff that no one else has,” he said.

The reason so much has gone undiscovered is pretty obvious. Oklahoma has no money to undertake the type of careful research that would be needed at sites around the state.

The last major dig at Spiro Mounds was more than 30 years ago, though work goes on at various spots.

Many of the artifacts in museums around the world were uncovered and sold during private digs authorized back in the 1930s. That’s when descendents of the original landowners of the Spiro Mounds sold digging rights to anyone willing to pay.

“Spiro Mounds is one of the most (famous) archaeological sites in the nation,” said Peterson. “There was that period of commercial digs back in the 1930s when anyone who could pay was allowed to dig and look for artifacts. That’s how many of the artifacts got uncovered and sold to museums and investors all over the world.

“We’ve had people refer to Spiro Mounds as the King Tut of the west. There is a vast amount of artifacts still in the ground here.”

That’s because most of the 12 mounds were not discovered until after the site was preserved and became off-limits to commercial digs.