The late Warren Siegmond collected arrowheads and other Indian artifacts since he was a child. He was born and raised in Palmerton, where he walked the fields, building his collection. He added to that collection over the years, attending artifact shows when he was older.

His widow, Jeannine, recently donated some of that collection to the Lehigh Gap Nature Center.the Rev. Paul Schoffstall, pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Palmerton, helped sort what he called "tons of rocks," many of which are in the Siegmond back yard. They had been stored in boxes and drawers.Schoffstall put aside what he thought was worth saving and had two experts, Lee Hallman of the Museum of Indian Culture in Allentown, and Steven Fry of New Tripoli, look for items that were definitely local.Those were placed in a display case made of local red oak by Robert Reinhart and donated to the nature center. Some of the collection was sent to other organizations and some was sold.Schoffstall said Siegmond was a creative person, a photographer by trade, and he worked in television.Jeannine said he walked the mountain in his youth to pick blueberries for his mother to make blueberry pie.Connie Reinhart said he was a good woodworker who made furniture among other things.Schoffstall said he never had the privilege of going out with Siegmond, but what he did was enjoy his collection of rocks. When he was sorting the material he was told he better count what was there. There were 80 milk cartons, designed to hold four gallons of milk each.Reinhart was described as the "display artist" who decided how best to display the collection to make it look attractive. Each shelf is labeled.Schoffstall said he has this idea that a man's work shouldn't disappear."Palmerton is 100 years old and some of the artifacts are 10,000 years old," he said.A few that Siegmond had were 15,000 years old. Dan Kunkle, of the nature center director, said what was displayed was all confirmed as local."Schoffstall is the one who got us all together. He came and talked to me. We needed a way to display the artifacts and he brought in Reinhart. It is a real team effort," Kunkle said.Jeannine Siegmond said she wouldn't have donated them except for the pastor."This was a transportation corridor for the Indians. There were villages along the Aquashicola. We do try to interpret the past in both the natural and human history. Think of the craftsmanship they had to have to just survive and connect it to today's craftsmanship in the cabinet," said Kunkle.He extended a formal "thank you" to Jeannine Siegmond who made the donation in her husband's memory, and thanked Reinhart for the cabinet and Schoffstall for putting all the things together to celebrate the past heritage.