Green Willow Fire Backstory - flint & steel AUDIO

Description

This is an audio telling the backstory of my Green Willow Fire with flint and steel video I recently did. The history is a story from the mid 1800's and one of my ancestors. Reading the story got me to try the green willow with flint and steel.

Tags: Flint (Rock Type),Flintknapping,Steel (Material),fire,firestarting,flint and steel,history

Video Transcription

hey this is perry peacock with wilderness innovation and I wanted to do a little I've been wanting to do this for a little bit i guess it was two or three weeks ago i did a video on fire starting using green willow green willow bark as the as basically the shavings the tinder whatever to to kind of get the ball rolling and using flint and steel to get that started and so I've had some emails some talks of people that sort of thing about about what I was doing and and I think maybe there might be some misunderstanding on on what I was trying to do there but so I wanted today to just give a little background on my whole motivation for that little episode and it's actually kind of an ongoing thing because I've once I tell you a little more of the backstory why you know you might understand why I've been kind of interest i guess lately and reading studying up on my ancestors my my family my kind of my heritage and that sort of thing and I there's several characters in my past that that I kind of became acquainted with and have really enjoyed reading some of the stories of things in their lives and one of them was John Loughrey a relative on my father's side and back in the mid 1800s participated in quite some exploration events and that sort of thing in in the in the western United States and in his son participated in a in a deal back then and the hike it I should have looked I should remembered my brains a little fried up or whatever but a like 19 or eight not nine here right 18eighteen 48 or something like that 49 went on a participated with a company of about 50 men on a exploration party where they were surveying part of a rude and part of an area for settlement of towns that sort of thing going from in the utah area down towards southern california and so the portion of his expedition they were involved in going from central utah down to southern utah in the southern south southwestern corner right there and so they were surveying that area nay they did all this in the wintertime because well in the summer they're busy building houses building towns farming you know cattle all that sort of thing so you know the wintertime is the only time they really had to go exploring you know when I first started studying us it seemed kind of weird like one of these guys always go do this stuff like in December and January February when it's like Tim 20 30 below zero or something in deep snow and it would be so much easier in the summer night I got to thinking well you know betta provide for the family so all summer long that was devoted to the farm and the cattle and all that sort of thing you know adding on to the house whatever so you know they did what they could so I get that's why some of their explorations were a lot tougher than a lot of things we do nowadays because you know they had to do it in the adverse weather but anyone on this particular expedition and this is kind of giving a little background of why I did that video on green will of fire starting a flint and steel they did their exploration they start about mid December and the thing ended about mid-february and on their way on their way back towards their settlements their towns that sort of thing they got they got about three cores the way back and a big blizzard and storm came up the temperatures dropped they got you know like three feet of snow and blowing wind and drifts and everything and their their wagons and teams they just they were just bogged down they just couldn't make any progress so they were so they're kind of stranded they're trying to make some attempts to get out and they could make they could make way a little with the horses stomping through but they just they couldn't bring the wagons and stuff with all their supplies so you know they kind of hung out a little bit trying to figure things out they act they actually made some temporary dugout cabins and sand such that they made in some creek banks it kind of that kind of gave him like kind of a back wall and that sort of thing you know they could build against and get him out of the weather and they started seeing that their their supplies of food and sites were kind of dwindling and the resources they'd already been gone for two months you know and so they knew something had to be done because this this winter weather was kind of continuing on wasn't relenting much so part of the part of the group decided to go on about a hundred and probably hundred and fifty miles or so north on a on their horses try to stop their way through to get to the that was like the nearest little town town wasn't even a town there's only a little fort there to try to get in there and get up a little rescue party to come back with some supplies and to kind of help break him break him free and get the wagons out and all that sort of thing both several the group among them my relative had decided that got talking and decided they could snowshoe over the top of the mountains you know these things went up nine ten thousand feet and as I snowshoe up over the top of the mountains to the east and drop back in down into the to the next Valley to the east and then follow that Valley back north to their settlement where they came from and I figured they could do this and maybe in a couple of days well only one of those three guys had snowshoes and he's the guy that suggested it amazingly right it's like yeah I snowshoe all the time let's do snowshoes oh I'm the only one that has them well one of the one of us so one of the other of the three made some snowshoes out of some branches and stuff like that passim tied him off together and that sort of thing and then my relative John he he took a yoke off of like the yoke for drawing that the wagons and stuff he took one of those and took a saw to it knows that I was able to cut it down and make a pair of snowshoes out of it so that was his snow sheep if you can imagine that so they take off up this Canyon and there there's places it's so steep for talking about you know having two guys lift one guy up to the next higher level and then those two guy and then getting the next guy up and those two guys pulling the last guy up and they really had a time getting up in the course deep snow and all that besides well you know they're there they're pitching camp under like a couple times it took longer than two days by the way a couple a couple times there had a big big pine tree you know with with the drooping limbs and everything that you know kind of been drifted around kind of gave a natural little shelter and you know they pulled into pulled into those a couple of times and and built a little fire inside of there and kind of snapped off dead branches and stuff to kind of keep it going and at all all they had you know they don't have the big down sleeping bags they just had a bedroll you know think they'd light some boughs down just like I do which was really cool i love that you know that's one of the things that really caught my eye on this story is like so many of the things they do is like things that i like to do like that is so cool some of my relatives did the same thing back then you know only for them was like like life and death but you know for me it's just fun but but anyway so you know so they're doing this the guy that was supposed to bring the food he's thinking he was the snowshoe guy you know he's thinking out two days max so he brings like 20 biscuits that's all the foodie brought and they're like what are you kidding me you know but it's too late there's nothing they can do they just got to go with it so you know after after day in a like a day and a half all the food is gone and so they keep going two of the guys one of the guys become severely snowblind when the weather kind of clears a little bit and all that snow out there and the other and started get all snowblind him and my relative John he had this one particular guy he had a lead him by the hand imagine s sky snowblind John's leading him by the hand and tell him oh there's a there's a big drop right here so watch that you know trying to trying to tell him guide him and tell him you know and they're going all day long you know snowshoeing all day long snowshoeing and anyway it turns out hope you don't mind this kind of extended story but it kind of I need to kind of tell a little bit of I'm really abbreviate alot here but kind of tell a little the back story of why why the green willow thing right so so anyway he they get they get down they I finally get to a spot they make camp you know this is like day three and so you know almost two days without food and temperatures at that point it had been going well below 0 10 20 below zero at times and in any way but but so they're going along John he's making camp he's the youngest of the three of the three people and he didn't have a family yet anything

so the other guys did so he's he's making fire all the time he's keeping the fire going all night long so he's getting virtually no sleep place so he's into this like he's into this like three days no sleep and any other guys are getting sleep but they're getting worn down because they're not this is a little you know I mean snowshoes cool and everything but when you've had just a sudden snowstorm of three feet of snow and you're and you're going up over a mountain range and I'm back down the other side in a breaking trail all the way you know there's no snow machines you know getting you a little trail like a lot of the snow shooting is nowadays and you know these guys are getting exhausted no food eat you know so anyway they're in in here and and it's crazy and and they finally get out of the mountains i get crossing down into the valley they follow this spring on down then i get down to the bottom of alley and they find they got across to the other side of the valley d where they need to go and all they've got in front of them is this river and and the river is not frozen yet because the you know the weather had been a little still wintry but it wasn't enough to freeze the river and then all of a sudden the storm came and it did get cold but it's still hadn't time to freeze the river over it's still flowing and the river is apparently according the story the river must have been reasonably deep and so they searched around search around the only option down in this area there's no trees there's just willows and brush and stuff like that there's nothing to build a bridge across or anything like this so the only option they have they have to afford this river so they're worried because of their conditions their weakened condition you know and their circumstances are worried about fourteen across this Creek and getting you know wet up to the what up to their chests and getting other clothes wet so they so they strip down they roll up their clothes in in their bed rolls they strap their bed rolls to the shoulders and end they and they work their way across afford this this river well as are getting ready to start they're trying to side well who should go first and kind of test the water mist and test the route across and any other two guys are telling my my relative John you ought to go first cuz you know you don't have any family it's like there's no big vote of confidence you know the truth of it is if they lose him they die you know they he's a lot better equipped or a lot more talented doing this tough to they are but anyway so he goes across and he's worried about it that's it doesn't tell us in a story like how deep the river was or whatever but it does say that he was quite concerned as he gets into it because it's deeper and got more current to it than what he thought plus you know floating you know floating ice and slush in it and all that so it's quite cold and in any way so he he gets across gets the other side the other guys start coming across well as soon as he gets across the other side he's over there you know stomping around in the snow trying to pack it down into a to kind of a flat area so it's not just deep snow so they can get dressed so they can you know they're going to make camp there and all that sort of thing so he's try to get all that prepped well here's so here's the cool part of the story for me and what's related to the green willow fire-starting deal with with flint and steel that I did so anyway so they get to this point they get dressed they're trying I mean can you imagine this I mean now then they're having come through slushy water and then trying to trying to warm themselves up a little now they now they got to build a fire and I don't know if you guys have I'm sure some of you have but if you try to build a fire when you're cold and that's what kind of intrigues me and I'm you know I thrilled that I was able to start a fire with flint and steel with green we're talking green pretty pretty pretty darn damp shavings I mean they they feel wet in your hands you know what I mean and and that was one thing and I did it in the summertime you know and it was a little challenging of that and I can't even imagine you're coming out of it out of a river like that and you have got to be just shaking like crazy and you know there's there isn't any way to warm up just other than you got to get a fire going and the only method they had was flint and steel and there's no trees there's no there's no dried grass there's nothing there but just willows these green willows that's growing along this river and and that's that's the only thing they had so you know in the story now it talks about that they started scraping the green willow bark and I shaved a big big pile of it apparently and and then it just simply says and John used his flint and steel and got a fire going with the shavings and and to be honest with you I when I first read I mean I loved I absolutely loved this whole story it was so cool they describe all the little details and some of the stuff I could picture so well because I've done it myself you know not under the circumstance they did but I've done it you know and so I kind of picture it and it kind of it kind of a romantic manly romantic kind of exploration type story and settings so it's pretty cool but but so anyway I I don't know to be honest with you when I got to that part of the story thought you know maybe this part of the story has become an urban legend or something you know it's kind of you know taking a life of its own as its told and everything but I thought I don't know i mean this is this came from his from from John's daughter who you know had told the story many times over the years and she decided it ought to be written down so she wrote it down I'm thinking well it's not like it went through 15 different people to get changed up a lot you know some you know but I just couldn't imagine especially in the wintertime like I just couldn't wrap my mind around okay somebody somebody built a fire out of green willows with flint and steel under those conditions I'm like I just don't know so so to deal with it my own mind it I just thought well let me just try it i mean i'll just try it now I mean it's not winter but let me just try it now and see and I I'd messed around with it I don't know a number of times and and I was unsuccessful in getting it and that stuff is just so so darn wet it's just it's just hard to get you know strike an ember and into a cotton cord or whatever and then and then trying to trying to work that into a to a flame in damp wet will of shavings just it's quite a it's quite a chat can be quite a challenge well anyway so to me it became kind of a kind of a thing you know to try to prove whether this story was true or not and I thought well if it can even be done in the spring or the summer or whatever at least I know it can be done so it is possible now granted you still got to say can you do it in the winter can you do it shivering when you just came out of crossing a icy slushy river you know you know that's a whole other thing but i thought well least if it is possible i know that it you know and back then john and some of those i mean that's how they lit fire is clinton steel so they're probably very talented at it so you know much much better than I am so I you know that so that's kind of

mainly the backstory to the video i did was just just trying to prove other minds the story of my relatives was true or not and I'm I'm pretty satisfied that it is because i was able to do it and I've I've actually learned some things since trying since that video i did i've learned some things and kind of figured out some tricks that make it even a little bit easier but you know but I'm just I'm just saying I believe that a story is probably I believe the story is true with the with the hundreds and hundreds of times maybe thousands of times that John might have built fire a flint and steel I'm sure that he became very very talented at it in his lifetime so I think it was possible I don't think it was easy even even as skilled as he probably was i think i think that was terribly difficult i just i mean i've done some water crossings and I've I've submerged myself many times in a number of times and in a river or lake in the wintertime through the ice and I know you know it doesn't take very long of being in there and then getting out and that kind of circumstance in it and in saying okay now I'm going to build a fire you thought I mean that's going to be tough your your coordination is going to be off you're shivering you're you know you're going to is it's going to be a tough deal but I believe that it can be done so so kind of an answer to some people's question I'm I'm not trying to I'm not trying to I'm really not trying to prove anything to anybody to be honest with you I was really trying to prove something to myself and that is my my ancestors story of what he did and so that's really the reason and so I wasn't trying to you know comply with any kind of whatever somebody might call a true flint and steel fire or whatever you know it's totally based on that story and you know and the methods that as close as I could come to what they might have used and that sort of thing and and so you know that's why I did it and it was very exciting to I was very I was very elated actually when it when it when it was successful I had come very close to making on a number at half a dozen times and every time I get just just get almost there in a disappear and I just learned I learned something in the process of dealing with that wet bark wet shavings from a willow and but anyway so that's the deal that's the back story that's why he did it and I i plan on experimenting with it even more and and i'm going to try it this coming winter just in cold conditions at first and just see how it goes and then you know if i get a reasonable chance or something I might try submerging myself or something and and try it in that instance and see see what it's like then you know so I don't know we'll just see what happens but anyway now you know the backstory I mean it might be kinda I was boring to you or whatever but it was it it's an exciting story reading all the details of it i may i may wind up publishing it as a short story in a blog or something just so everybody can can get a little more of the flavor of it you know because i really love the story it was really cool but but anyway so that's that's why i did the video on the green willow fire starting with foot and steel now you know what the whole backstory is and what my intention was and and kind of going forward what i want to do in the future so so anyway we'll have a great day enjoy your time in the outdoors like i always do experiment around here and they're kind of like I'm playing with this with this deal with the fire-making and you know have a good time enjoy yourself expand your talents check things out have a good time be safe perry peacock wilderness innovation have a great day