At high noon on Saturday and Sunday, and for four hours thereafter, you’ll have a chance to learn or show off your atlatl skills at Travelers’ Rest State Park in Lolo.
It’s one highlight of the fifth annual Traditional Trades weekend, which concludes with a Lewis and Clark bike parade from Florence on Monday evening.
Other features of the weekend include demonstrations by local Lewis and Clark re-enactors, the Travelers’ Rest Brigade, and demonstrations of beading, traditional games, quill work and brain tanning.
The atlatl is a shaft with a handle on one end and a hook or socket on the other. If you do it right, you can fling a light spear, or dart, with much more force by atlatl than by hand. In 1995 Dave Ingvall of Missouri threw his home-made atlatl dart 848 feet, almost the length of three football fields.
Everybody used to do it, say, 10,000 years ago. It was one of the world’s first mechanical inventions, only to be pushed out of popular use by the bow and arrow. These days there’s a World Atlatl Association and various state and regional associations. You can hunt legally with an atlatl in Pennsylvania.
At Travelers’ Rest there’ll be an atlatl throwing contest for ages 9 and up. Participants will throw for accuracy and distance, and history and safety courses will be part of the contest.
The Travelers’ Rest Brigade will be on site both Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. to demonstrate firearms, bullet-making and leather work. Hourly interpretive programs will be intermixed both days with guided walks and animal track and pelt identification for kids.
Naomi Kuka will make a day of it on Saturday, conducting a beading demonstration for children and adults from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., then leading participants in a session of traditional games.
Bill and Doreen Meisner will be on site Sunday to demonstrate quill work, brain tanning and other traditional trades. Activities for kids include quill writing and games.
Anyone interested in riding in Monday’s Lewis and Clark bike parade should meet at the Florence-Carlton School starting at 3:30 p.m. to decorate their bikes. The parade itself begins at 5 p.m. and proceeds north to Travelers’ Rest along the route the Lewis and Clark expedition followed in 1805.
Parade registration forms are available at Travelers’ Rest. Bicycle helmets are required, and staff of the trauma Center at St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula will be on hand to demonstrate proper helmet safety and provide low-cost helmets.
The parade is sponsored by the Travelers’ Rest Preservation and Heritage Association, the Good Food Store and Harvest Foods.
Check out www.travlersrest.org for more information on Travelers’ Rest State Park.
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