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.
Tammy, I made Dakota holes 40 years ago. A bit amazed it showed up on puter.
I actually built a large version of one of these at my former campground using cinder block for walls. And had heating vents running under the ground then up through the soil with vents tops on top so rain didn’t fill up the vents under the ground. I put a grate in it about 8″ above the bottom of the pit to keep the air flowing underneath the wood. Talk about burning hot? It deformed the iron grate cause it was melting and that was with the fire ON TOP of the grate not under it. You could hear the wind whistling through the 2 vents (on either side of the pit) my friend kid who used to love playing arkund HIS fire pit backed way away from mine and said Daddy can we go, it’s too hot here. And this was in late October. Was a chilly night! LOL
That guy is creepy.
Why was a 14 minute video to explain something that should have only took about 2 minutes. I stopped watching at about the 2:30 mark. Cool idea, but presentation way tooooooooooooooooo longggggggggggggggg
ok
Yep, I dug a (w)hole bunch of those in boys scout around early 60’s. Made some reflector fires too on occasion. Also remember baking potatoes in mud when no foil was available!
Bard LeFevre and Allen Cox here is your survival trick of the day
We have used Dakota fire pits for years
This would be fun just doing it for leasure to get too drink a cup of coffee out of a ten cup.
this is really cool, interested to try it.