For more information regarding Baltimore County’s Primitive Technology Weekend,
please contact the Park Office at 410.887.2503 or [email protected]
Primitive Technology Weekend
NEW DATES!
OCTOBER 12-13, 2024
Join us as we share knowledge and hands-on experience in the replication of items composed of stone, bone, wood, and natural fibers.
FREE EVENT
Saturday, October 12th – 10 am – 4 pm
Sunday, October 13th – 10 am – 1 pm
CAMPING: LIMITED camping is available Friday, 10/11 and Saturday 10/12 ONLY. Camping is $3.00 per person. If you are camping, please arrive by 8 pm. All children under 18 must be accompanied by an ADULT. Everyone must register for camping on line on Baltimore County’s Civic Rec registration site: https://recandparks.baltimorecountymd.gov/MD/baltimore-co-md/catalog. You will need to create an account and sign the electronic waivers in order to camp.
SATURDAY, October 12th
10 am – 4 pm
10 AM-4 PM Safety Officers Abe Yoffe, Stan Lapinski, & Kiana Ritter will supervise bow and arrow shooting on Saturday (10 AM to 4 PM) AND Sunday (10AM to 1 PM) for families, adults and children.
10 AM-4 PM Naturalist Mimi Knuth – Clay Coils, Pinch Pots and Fish Prints with Red Ochre – Learn the basics of Indigenous Pottery on Saturday (10 AM to 4 PM) AND Sunday (10 AM to 1 PM), then build your own pot with traditional tools. Print a fish on a shirt (bring your own white shirt), or on our paper using our native pigments.
10 AM-4 PM Indigenous Cooking – Ranger Laura Page – Find out how to make nutritional tortillas using only two ingredients – Corn kernels and Calcium Hydroxide. Learn the ancient process of “Nixtamalization,” and discover why it is important. Laura will be cooking on a traditional Mexican Clay Comal, in clay pots, and on a green stick grill over an open flame.
10:30-11:30AM The Knapping Circle – Nate Salzman will show you how to make large rocks into small sharp tools. Nate is the Education and Exhibit Specialist at Jefferson Patterson Park.
11:30-12:30PM Blow Gun Darts -Ranger F. Kirk Dreier will demonstrate how to make traditional Cherokee blow gun darts. Participants will have the opportunity to try their hand at making a dart for themselves. Demonstrations of traditional river cane blow guns will be part of this program.
1:00 PM “Nick” Spero of the Natural History Society of Maryland will teach us about wild edibles that are all around us, that offer us a variety of health benefits and can add unique flavors to meals. Nick will guide you out into “the wilds” of Cromwell Valley Park to discover these wild treasures.
2:00 PM Guy R. Neal of Primal Knowledge will provide you with his knowledge of traps and snares. Indigenous people used ingenious methods to create devices which could capture animals for food.
3:00 PM Brain Tanning Buckskin – Bill Kaczor of AncestralKnowledge.org will walk you through all the steps it takes to turn raw deer skin into buckskin, a very soft leather that can be turned into clothing, bags, and much more.
6:00 PM Nate Salzman, Education and Exhibit Specialist for Jefferson Patterson Park & Museum will present Wigwams: A Modern Look at an Ancient Home. Nate has worked on over a half-dozen wigwams/witchots and in that time he has learned a lot about how to build them, how they function and just how different the pre-contact building process must have been. Join us as Nate discusses the challenges of constructing a pre-contact home with a post-contact perspective.
SUNDAY, October 13th
10 am – 1 pm
8:00 AM Bow Shoot – Bring your wooden/fiberglass traditional bows, flu-flu arrows, or arrows with judo and/or rubber blunts & a handful of target arrows, as we shoot balloons, roll an inner tube, & toss aerial targets. Meet at the main kiosk for this shoot inspired by Dr. Errett Callahan’s book on roving.
10 AM-1PM Indigenous Cooking – Ranger Laura Page – Find out how to make nutritional tortillas using only two ingredients – Corn kernels and Calcium Hydroxide. Learn the ancient process of “Nixtamalization,” and discover why it is important. Laura will be cooking on a traditional Mexican Clay Comal, in clay pots, and on a green stick grill over an open flame.
10 AM-1 PM Naturalist Mimi Knuth – Clay Coils, Pinch Pots and Fish Prints with Red Ochre – Learn the basics of Indigenous Pottery, then build your own pot with traditional tools. Print a fish on a shirt (bring your own white shirt), or on our paper using our native pigments.
10AM -1PM Safety Officers Abe Yoffe, Stan Lapinski, & Kiana Ritter will supervise bow and arrow shooting for families, adults and children.
Primitive Technology Weekend is a Baltimore County Department of Recreation and Parks event. Cromwell Valley Park Council is not permitted to solicit for memberships or donations at this event. We welcome you to support our Council by going to Membership – Cromwell Valley Park Council. We thank you for your support!