First Earth Wilderness School offers a wide range of unique educational programs in stone-age technology, ancient foodways, and nature awareness, either at your location or at First Earth’s camp. Our most popular off-site program is a one-hour presentation including demonstrations & exhibits, or choose to customize a program to fit your curriculum needs.
Hands-on instruction is available in several subjects, students take home a finished project. (smaller groups only) Nature study field-trips are available in: plant, bird, animal & insect ID by sight & sound, edible/medicinal/useful plant ID, animal tracking, nature awareness, overview of local archaeology, food web & basic ecology of forests & streams.
We also offer Edible/Medicinal/Useful plant walks for groups and individuals that want to learn plants on their property or area, these can be scheduled at request. Weekdays are preferred, but a few weekends are open. An afternoon plant walk is around $250, depending on length and travel time.
Overview of basic presentation:
- Discussion of stone-age technology, wilderness survival, and hunter-gatherer activities
- Exhibition and discussion of display articles
- Demonstration of selected subjects
Demonstration subjects:
- Flintknapping – (making stone arrowheads, knives, axes, and other tools, and see an extremely sharp stone cutting tool made in one second)
- Demonstration of ancient weaponry, including atlatl, blowgun, bow & arrow
- Making fire with bow-drill, hand-drill, flint & steel or fire-piston
- Cordage – (very strong string & rope made from plant & animal fibers, even from a paper towel)
(Stone-age weapons & fire can be fully demonstrated only at an outside location)
List of handmade display articles:
- Braintan buckskin clothing & moccasins
- Bone sewing needles & awl
- Bone fish-hook & plant-fiber fishing line
- Primitive basketry & pottery
- Fat or oil lamp made from pottery
- Bow-drill, hand-drill & bamboo fire-saw (for making friction fire)
- Fire-piston (fire by compression)
- Several types of deadfall & snare traps
- Stone-tipped pump drill
- Stone knives & spear points
- Spear points made from a television picture tube
- Arrowpoints from gemstones such as jasper, agate, opal, obsidian
- Atlatl & dart (ancient spear thrower used by Paleo people to kill Mastodon, Wooly Mammoth and other Pleistocene Megafauna)
- Osage-Orange bow & rivercane arrows
- Cherokee-style rivercane blowgun & darts
- Rivercane backrest
- Rawhide cooking pot (for boiling with hot stones)
- Hair comb/cordage processing tool made from a deer scapula
- Primitive paint set using finely ground colored stones
- Large stone axes, spearpoints and hoes
Call or email for program price details
