When you want to build a containable fire that won't cough smoke in your face with every shift of the wind, you should turn to the Dakota fire hole. This method of fire building is specifically intended for building cooking fires while on the move, as it does not easily spread and is simple to extinguish and abandon.
To learn this excellent method, check out the video below.
If you want a fire for warmth, this probably isn't a great choice of the many fire building methods out there. However, if you wish to build a fire for cooking that is easy to put out when it's time to go, the Dakota fire hole is absolutely the method you want.
Its design is perfect for allowing maximum air into the flames, which means a smokeless and hot fire. What also makes this design great is that you can feed the flames by just pushing fuel into the hole opposite the fire, thereby eliminating those nasty burns that come from careless fire tending in other methods.
My favorite feature is that you can simply throw the dirt you dug making the hole back into the pits and carry on with your day, no water or waiting required. Don't do this in a rented campsite, though; they won't like you digging holes around their property.
This is an awesome method that makes cooking out in the wilderness a million times easier.
you put an upside down fire in the hole and your good to cook for a decent bit of time without have to feed the fire.
In the picture, the fire is too big, part of the idea behind a Dakota Pit Fire is stealth, so small fire that you can not see from more than like 10-15 foot away. . . .
There are natural tubes like that in the Panamints that we used for cooking fires a long time ago.
That’s pretty cool
It works.
Nice
Ike Siler Randy Siler
In the movie “Dances with Wolves” a Pawnee warrior said “Only a White man would build a fire where everyone could see it” I guess in the post Apocalypse this advice could come in handy indeed.
Rob Mcdowell
They do work but not completely smokeless but damn near
Joshua Griego
Dakota Lain
learn this please…
Fire! Fire!
Introducing? It’s been around for centuries.
Andrew Deming
nothing better then a Dakota Fire Pit
Yep I just made one and it rocks !