Kootenai River Project 2001

In the summer of 2001, the Kootenai River Project began the Stone Age Living Series, with a two-month long berry camp. which was documented in the Bulletin of Primitive Technology.

The project was based on the modern Neolithic period around 1700 AD

The participants ranged in age from 8 to 50 and were invited from various parts of the United States and Europe for their knowledge and experience in primitive technologies and ancient living skills.

Camp life, the first phase lasted 44 days and had a total of 17 participants most of whom stayed for just a matter of days. They came and went as it suited them and the energy brought in from people arriving from a long road trip with the smell of bacon and eggs on them was unnerving.

During this phase shelters were constructed, plant foods were harvested and prepared for eating and storage, small animals were hunted and trapped, a whole bison was slaughtered and processed, pottery was made and fired, tools and utensils were also made and maintained.

The journey, the second phase was a ten-day trip approximately 150 miles across the Purcell Mountains by foot, then returning on horseback. As with the first phase I started with a couple of companions but half way through I found myself once again alone.

Excerpt - Return: A New Look at Ancient an unpublished manuscript by Lynx Vilden