A Dakota fire hole requires much less firewood and burns more efficiently, producing hotter fires with less wood. This makes it a very valuable wilderness survival technique in places where firewood is scarce or requires much effort to obtain.
It also creates a stable platform that is very convenient for cooking.
The fire is concealed within a hole limiting the amount of visible light emitted and smoke is also decreased because the wood is burning hotter and more efficiently.
If you put your Firestarter down the other hole and under the wood, you would get a better burn.
LIKE IT
Several weeks after watching this I was in Upper state Maine hunting and a severe storm buried us with snow and ice
Lots of effort collecting wood but we found small pine and other wood to use..
Long story short no one believed how to do this and I showed them. Worked first shot digging out with a soup can. After 45 minutes of cleaning out an area under a wayward pine tree shaking all the branches first and digging the holes we had a ROARING FIRE…It really makes a roaring sound and kept us warm in a huddle around it without any problems
Thanks and God Bless. Several warm friends thanks to you. PS the Vaseline cotton balls are the bomb. I had 3 and it took all of them to get the damp stuff going. 🙂
Too cute.
I tried to build a “Dakota Fire Hole” this afternoon and all I got was a small swimming pool. (Marrero, La)
Maybe a survival raft building video for Douglas…ya think? 😉
Great video, Mike Frederick, thanks for sharing! I like the idea of a small grill for cooking on top! We used to dig a pit and used a grill in Girl Scouts years ago…I had forgotten about that!
sounds like a woman i knew
NATO-USAF 1959/1963 SERE School: Lesson 1 How to make a Dakota Hole. 🙂
I think building the fire on top would allow a longer cook time. If started at bottom the fire would burn to hot to fast.