The Woodsman's Journal Online: May 2026

Sunday, May 17, 2026

Josiah Hunt, How He Made His Secret Camp-Fires, Part One©

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

Before we start with this week’s article, I’ve found some new material, that sheds some new light onto last week’s article, “Josiah Hunt and The Palmer Furnace©”. It challenges my belief that Josiah Hunt was the originator of the ‘secret camp-fire’ technique. While I still haven’t seen any primary or secondary source material specifically stating that Simon Kenton used smoldering bark in a pit to keep from freezing, Ted Franklin Belue, writing “Terror in the Canelands”, DID find evidence of early frontiersmen using bark to make “nearly smokeless” fires. He printed research into Daniel Boone and the salt-boilers taken captive by the Shawnee at the salt-springs at the Licking River, and wrote that Benjamin Kelly, who in 1782 escaped from the Shawnee towns of the Ohio territory with another captive, used hickory bark to create a “nearly smokeless fire”, while making good his escape. This was eleven years prior to Josiah Hunt’s adventures near Fort Greenville and the importance of this is that Simon Kenton was both a hunter and a scout for the salt-boilers who were captured in 1778. Benjamin Kelly and Simon Kenton would have known each other, and if one knew that hickory burned nearly smokeless, so might have the other, or it’s possible that Benjamin Kelly learned this from the Shawnee, during his captivity from 1778 to 1782, since archeological reports for the Luce Creek site in Maryland and the Stony Run site in Pennsylvania described the Native Americans as preferring hickory and trees from the white oak family as fuel wood.

However, the description of how Josiah Hunt made his ‘Secret Camp-fire’, still remains the earliest and best how-to-guide for creating a ‘coal pit’ and a ‘secret camp-fire’, that I’ve found.

But when, I first read about Josiah Hunt, manner of making “secret camp-fires”, it left me with three questions.

One, how deep and wide did he dig his ‘coal pit’; what exactly was the size of a hat crown in 1793?

Two, why did he use the “roth”, the bark from a dead and dry, white oak tree, specifically? Are there other barks that he could have used?

And third, how did he know, in the dark, in the winter, which trees were white oaks?

“he dug a hole in the ground...the size and depth of a hat crown”

Just what was the size and depth of hat crowns in the late 18^th century? Thankfully, Captain Phineas Meigs Hat’s, from 1782 still exists. Captain Phineas Meigs was the last Connecticut man killed in combat during the American Revolution, in 1782. In 1850 his grandson donated the hat he wore when he was shot through the head to Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library, which still has it today.

According to Andrea Rapacz, at the Museum the width of hat’s 7 ½ to 7 ¾ inches (19.1 to 19.7 cm) in diameter, and the crown of the hat is 4 ¼ inches (10.8 cm) deep. The average human palm for both sexes 3 ¼ inches wide at the knuckles, and the hand is about 7 ¼ inches long from the bottom of the palm to the tip of the longest finger.

So dig your ‘coal pit’ as wide as your hand is long and a bit deeper than half a hand and it will be about “...size and depth of a hat crown”.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Josiah Hunt, How He Made His Secret Camp-Fires, Part One©”, for more on how to make nearly smokeless, secret campfires.

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Notes

Sources

Bigelow, David; History of Prominent Mercantile and Manufacturing Firms in the United States, Vol VI, [David Bigelow, Boston, 1857], page 265-270, https://www.google.com/books/edition/History_of_Prominent_Mercantile_and_Manu/y1w-AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=%22History+of+Prominent+Mercantile+and+Manufacturing+Firms+in+the+United+States%22+1857+%22josiah+Hunt%22&pg=PA266&printsec=frontcover, accessed May 7, 2026

Howe, Henry; Historical Collections of Ohio, [Derby, Bradley & Company, Cincinnati, 1847], page 199 to 200, https://books.google.com/books?id=ri8WAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA199&lpg=PA199&dq=%22josiah+hunt%22+roth&source=bl&ots=M7iiOgL5Xj&sig=WXic_CR-GpPKHcgxxeXT3oCTcz4&hl=en&sa=X&ei=noyDU8XEDuilsQTX7ICQCw&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22josiah%20hunt%22%20roth&f=false, accessed May 7, 2026

S.J.R.; “Fuel Value of Wood”, Hardwood Record, October 10, 1912 [Chicago], page 32 to 33, https://www.google.com/books/edition/Hardwood_Record/7QQ3AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=does+dry+oak+bark+burn+without+smoke&pg=RA12-PA33&printsec=frontcover, accessed May 16, 2026

Rapacz, Andrea; Connecticut Historical Society Museum and Library, Personal conversation regarding The Phineas Meigs’ Hat, May 01, 2016, 10:51 am

University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; “N. W. Territory Map, 1801”, by William Barker, [© 2026], https://digital.library.illinois.edu/items/9d2ba5e0-994e-0134-2096-0050569601ca-2, accessed May 9, 2026

Webster, Noah; A Dictionary of the English Language: Compiled for the Use of Common Schools, [George Goodwin & Sons, Hartford, 1817], page 275, https://books.google.com/books?id=fJ8RAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA275&dq=ross+bark+dictionary&hl=en&sa=X&ei=T5kXUu-ZAcTd4QTxtYCQCw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=ross%20bark%20dictionary&f=false, accessed May 9, 2026

Westmore Arboretum; “Shagbark Hickory, Carya ovata”, https://westmoorarboretum.org/shagbark-hickory/, accessed May 16, 2026

Wikimedia, “An engraving of Simon Kenton, by Richard W. Dodson, after Louis M. Morgan, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts”, ca. 1834-39, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Engraving_of_Simon_Kenton,_by_Richard_W._Dodson,_after_Louis_M._Morgan.jpg, accessed May 16, 2026

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Josiah Hunt and The Palmer Furnace©

Dr. Jonathan Palmer, a modern caver, is credited with publicizing the use of the “Palmer Furnace” as it is known today by us modern folk. He used a candle or a carbide lamp to exhaust warm gases, up under a shirt or a blanket, to quickly warm up, when cold, an idea he probably got from old-time hard rock miners.

But the idea behind the Palmer Furnace was known at least as far back as the late 18^th century, it dates to 1793 to be exact. Some authors attribute the idea of using a small smoldering fire, built in a pit, and partly smothered with dirt, while sitting above it, wrapped in a blanket to Lewis Wetzel; others such as Allen Eckert, the author of The Frontiersman, attributed the early use of a Palmer Furnace to Simon Kenton. Both Lewis Wetzel and Simon Kenton were active during the 1790’s in the Upper Ohio Valley area and while I don’t doubt Mr. Eckert; I believe the originator of the “secret camp-fire” technique was actually a little known frontiersman named Josiah Hunt.

The earliest known primary biographical source that I can find, that speaks of the “secret camp-fire”, dates to 1847, and was written by Judge Thomas Coke Wright. Judge Wright was the earliest Greene County historian and was also a contemporary of many of early settlers in Greene County and who had spoken with Josiah Hunt, whom he described as speaking with “...a tone of candor and sincerity, as well as modesty, in his manner of relating the thrilling scenes in which he had been an actor...”¹. In this account, written Judge Wright, and sent by him to Henry Howe, for inclusion in his Historical Collections of Ohio, 1847, the creation of “secret camp-fire” is attributed to Josiah Hunt.

During The Northwest Indian War of 1785 to 1795, which ended with the Battle of Fallen Timbers and the Treaty of Greenville, signed in 1795, according to an account written by Judge Wright, Josiah Hunt in 1793 worked both as a soldier and a hunter supplying meat to the garrison at Fort Greene-ville, as it was then known.

Because the Native Americans of the Confederated Tribes would ambush anyone leaving the fort, Hunt would leave the Fort after dark, walk towards his chosen hunting ground and then bivouac for night, before hunting in the morning. During the winter of 1793, he used the following technique to keep from freezing to death in the night, a technique that is like what we know of today as a ‘Palmer Furnace’.

The narrative goes on to say that the Native American warriors who knew of this daring hunter, and who were actively hunting him, were so impressed with the ingenuity of his secret campfire, a trick that, apparently, they did not know about, and his skill as a warrior and hunter that they promoted him to “Captain”, a term of great respect among Native Americans warriors of the time. The fact that the Native American warriors were impressed with how he made his secret campfires, also leads me to believe that he was the inventor of this method.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “Josiah Hunt, How He Made His Secret Camp-Fires”, where we will talk about how to make an emergency furnace to keep from freezing to death.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Rapacz, Andrea; Personal conversation regarding The Phineas Meigs’ Hat, May 01, 2016, 10:51 am

Sunday, May 3, 2026

So you’ve decided to stay where you are, immediately seeking shelter and making do with the available terrain. You found a windbreak to huddle behind and pulled a trash bag out, ripped a face hole and tugged it down around you. How could you make your emergency shelter even better? With a tea candle of course!

The heat from a candle flame can be used to warm your body by allowing the exhaust gases from the burning candle to flow under a shirt, poncho or trash-bag pulled out and away from your body, a technique discovered originally by cold miners, and later nicknamed by cavers the “Palmer furnace”, after Dr. Jonathan Palmer, who advocated its use (for more on Palmer Furnaces read It’s Time to Tune Up Your Palmer Furnace!©). According to Genevieve, the author of “A Month of Wilderness Medicine”, within minutes of lighting her candle, the palmer furnace had her “nice and toasty in the 55 degree cave”.

According to scientists affiliated with Cambridge University, 8 grams of petroleum-based wax creates about 80 watts of energy, of which 95% is heat. In other words, since the average tea candle is about 17 grams of wax, it will generate about 170 watts of energy over four hours, the length of time a tea candle burns, of which 161.5 watts will be heat energy.

According to research by the Cornish Scent Company and Sylvane Inc., one tea candle can heat about 16 square feet or 1.5 square meters¹. Since a person sitting in a fetal or tucked position, while holding their knees, takes up a footprint of 1-½ to 2 feet wide by 2 feet deep, occupying roughly 3 to 4 square feet of space, this a metric footprint of 45 to 60 cm wide by 60 cm deep, or 91 to 121 cm squared. This means that a single tea candle can provide enough heat to help prevent hypothermia in a small, enclosed space like the cab of a stuck vehicle, a small tent or a trash-bag shelter!

So even though, according to the US Airforce Survival experts, making do with the available terrain was the worst choice, if you create a palmer furnace out of a trash-bag and a tea-candle, you might survive the storm.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Genevieve; “A Month of Wilderness Medicine”, October 18, 2018, [© Copyright 1995-2026 Regents of the University of Michigan], https://medschool.umich.edu/dose-reality/month-wilderness-medicine, accessed May 2, 2026

Midnight Sun Council; “Extreme Scouting”, Scouting Nov-Dec 2008, page 32, https://books.google.com/books?id=4vwDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA32&dq=%22at+another+station,+scouts+learned%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjBwb6ZxpuUAxU3UGcHHf6wNiAQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=%22at%20another%20station%2C%20scouts%20learned%22&f=false, accessed May 2, 2026

Pearl; “Pearl’s Cold Climate Survival Candle”, United States Army Aviation Digest, Volume 18, October 1972, page 40, https://books.google.com/books?id=fX_PMHbuxfQC&pg=RA8-PA40&dq=shelter+candle+heat&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjhh-Cy28aJAxXohIkEHZPnFAI4ChDoAXoECAYQAg#v=onepage&q=shelter%20candle%20heat&f=false, accessed May 2, 2026

The Cornish Scent Company; “Can you heat a room with a candle!”, February 2, 2023, https://www.thecornishscentcompany.com/blogs/news/can-you-heat-a-room-with-a-candle?srsltid=AfmBOoov2GdSouuB3oJa9vTWNU7N41Cd8EUll6kjqH8YNerRzaYVk5Ux, accessed May 2, 2026

U.S. Department of The Army; Guide For Platoon Sergeant, PAM 350-13, [Headquarters, Dept of the Army, August 1967], page 87, https://books.google.com/books?id=0h25AAAAIAAJ&pg=PP7&dq=pam+350-13&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi9u9if5dCJAxUgpIkEHbwEJcUQ6AF6BAgMEAI#v=onepage&q=pam%20350-13&f=false, accessed May 2, 2026

About Me

I live near Buffalo, New York and have more than 25 years of experience in the outdoors. I enjoy being in the wilderness, paddling a canoe or exploring the woods, when I am not researching survival, woodcraft, camping skills or life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I am a published author and I have been a guide for Birchbark Expeditions and an Outdoor Skills trainer for the Boy Scouts since 2014. I am also a martial artist, having studied several different combat arts over the past 30 years. Currently, I am the author of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.

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Sunday, May 17, 2026

Josiah Hunt, How He Made His Secret Camp-Fires, Part One©

Sunday, May 10, 2026

Josiah Hunt and The Palmer Furnace©

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Emergency Shelter, Part Four – Tea Candles!©

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