Campers carefully turned over river rocks in a quest to add crustaceans to the night's dinner menu.
The girls recommended storing captive crawdads in a Nalgene water bottle. The boys built a crawdad corral by stacking small rocks where the Jefferson River met the shore. The boys hoped the crayfish would go claw-to-claw in a sort of primitive UFC.
The river flowed low and slow Wednesday. Yet, for the sake of safety, the campers dragged along a grass rope they'd woven that was thick as a Burmese python. It later supported a spirited tug-of-war in the midst of the river named by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark.
History records that Lewis and Clark ate crayfish.
Their expedition traveled up the Jefferson River roughly 220 years before these 20 young people, most of them in pre-adolescence -- gathered this week east of Whitehall for the three-day and two-night Ancient Skills Summer Camp at the Outdoor Wilderness Living School, or OWLS. The camp is meant to be a throwback of sorts, introducing young people to the sorts of ancient skills practiced by the West's indigenous people.
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Think stalking, hide tanning, fire starting, carving, knife safety, working with wool, foraging, crafting hunting sticks and much more.
Tom Elpel -- adventurer, author, conservationist and founder of Green University -- organizes and leads the camp with assistance from adults who have participated in Green University or other courses at the site.
Most of the campers at this summer's gathering call Montana home. They tend to have a leg up on young people from places where being in wide open spaces requires commitment and travel. At least one camper arrived from Ohio.
A boy from Bozeman had never attended an overnight camp and his older brother said his sibling felt uneasy the first night. But Elpel responded and offered reassurance, the brother said.
The brothers were all smiles Wednesday.
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Elpel said this summer's camp had a higher percentage than usual of boys. One of the girls said the boys needed additional instruction about knife safety.
Nearby, Alder Chanania serenely whittled a stick, envisioning a slingshot. She required no butterfly bandage afterward.
Meanwhile, Felix Kordich, who has family in Pony, demonstrated crackerjack skills starting a fire with flint and steel and tinder.
Four parents participated in portions of the Ancient Skills Summer Camp with offspring. One such parent was Jessica Peterson, an herbalist from Helena. She said she was familiar with Elpel because of his book, "Botany in a Day."
The camp started Tuesday morning and was scheduled to end Thursday afternoon.
A few kids said they weren't exactly sure how they came to be enrolled at the camp. They figured their mother had signed them up and expressed gratitude for that decision.
"It is really cool and fun," said Adalin Kjersem.
The Outdoor Wilderness Living School observes that its mission is to "expose children and young adults to the beauty and value of the natural world, while teaching them the ancient skills, not just to survive, but to thrive in nature."
"The impact that computers, video games, televisions, smart phones and the rest of the technological boom is having on our kids is really incalculable because it has occurred so quickly and changed their lifestyles so fast," the school asserts. "There is something innate and essential about interacting with nature -- climbing trees, building forts and playing in mud."
Mud oozed between toes Wednesday as the campers happily tramped through the willows and swales to the Jefferson River on a hot afternoon.
Elpel reflected on the camp.
"It's just great to see the kids out connecting with nature the way our ancestors did," he said.
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