8,000-Year-Old Carlsbad Stone May Fit the Bill as Official Artifact

The outrage of it: Nearly a century and a half after statehood, California is still bereft of an official prehistoric artifact.

California is a leader in having official things: motto, nickname, reptile, insect, mineral, folk dance, marine mammal, fossil and more. But no prehistoric artifact.

An ocean-view home in La Jolla costing under $400,000 does not qualify as such an artifact, even though it’s been eons since one was spotted.

Enter the 8,000-year-old Chipped Stone Bear, an Indian emblem dug up near Agua Hedionda Lagoon in Carlsbad.

If there is not a last-minute push for a Pomo basket or a Chumash canoe, Chipped Stone Bear could, within a few fortnights, become the official state prehistoric artifact.

Of course, this “official” business has gotten tricky. A move to name the banana slug as the official state mollusk was squashed when the abalone lobby objected.

That’s the beauty of Chipped Stone Bear: it’s unknown what tribe created it, and thus it’s immune to inter-tribal bickering.

It was dug up in 1985 by students of Henry Koerper, professor of anthropology at Cyprus College in Orange County. It’s 1 1/2 inches by 2 1/2 inches, crescent-shaped; flat on one side, sculpted into the likeness of a bear on the other.

Koerper thinks Chipped Stone Bear will be an antidote to all this fuss being made about the 500th anniversary of that explorer-come-lately:

“Too much hoopla is being made about Christopher Columbus. He was thousands and thousands of years too late to ‘discover’ America.”

Right now, Chipped Stone Bear is kept in a safe-deposit box in a bank. It would be moved to the California Indian Museum in Sacramento.

Last week, the state Senate voted 29 to 1 in favor, so now on to the Assembly.

The Senate vote was straight up. It wasn’t a rider on a bill designed to be catnip to legislators--like upping their salaries--so chances look good for Chipped Stone Bear to go all the way.

Secret Visitor From the East

If you think the military is tight-lipped about the movement of top brass, just try the corporate world.

A reader from La Jolla calls to say she’s sure she saw Edward S. Finkelstein, chairman and chief executive officer of R.H. Macy & Co., prowling through Bullock’s in Mission Valley.

Doing an inspection maybe. Macy is Bullock’s corporate parent.

The store manager won’t confirm or deny that Finkelstein is, was, has ever been, or will ever be in the store.

A Macy public relations woman in San Francisco is not empowered to discuss Finkelstein’s comings and goings. Neither is a Macy public relations woman in New York, where Finkelstein has his office.

A Macy public relations man in Los Angeles says that, yes, Finkelstein was at Bullock’s in Mission Valley: “We try to keep a low profile.”

For any additional information, he refers me to a Macy vice president in Atlanta.

That’s OK, I wouldn’t want to ask a question that might jeopardize national security. Or the new line of summer sportswear.

Duck! It’s a Plane

Here we go.

* San Diego Councilman Ron Roberts has a press conference this morning to announce a “modified binational airport” proposal.

He’ll be flanked by pilot group leaders and the presidents of the San Diego and Otay Mesa chambers of commerce.

To emphasize the scary proximity of downtown and Lindbergh Field, the conference will be held at Mr. A’s restaurant, with its 12th-floor view of jetliners seeming to weave through high-rises.

* Among those considering a run next year for the Republican nomination in the 75th Assembly District: former Del Mar Mayor Ronnie Delaney and former Nevada Assemblyman Steve Francis, who now owns a medical recruitment firm in San Diego.

* North County bumper sticker: “Consultant, All Zones.”

* Bridge column in Tribune on Saturday: “Alder on Bridge,” by Phillip Adler.

Bridge column in Tribune on Monday: “Adler On Bridge,” by Phillip Alder.