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Medicine Bow
Summer Camp
At Medicine Bow, children learn ACCOUNTABILITY and SELF-RELIANCE and, therefore, SELF-ESTEEM.
...and a lot about the woods.
SUMMER CAMP SCHEDULE
Write, call or email for application
Adventure Camp, June 9-13 – Along with a lot of games and fun, this camp addresses Native American survival skills, crafts and lore. $400
Veteran Archers’ Camp, June 23-27 – For boys and girls who have attended any Medicine Bow Summer Camp or The Art of Archery. .$400
Archery Camp, July 7-11 – For boys and girls 10 and older who love the bow and arrow and want to become better archers. $400
To Sign Up
Mail in a check made to Medicine Bow, Ltd., 104 Medicine Bow, Dahlonega, GA, 30533. To make sure you get into the class you want, call or email to reserve your spot. 706-864-5928 or medbow@alltel.net
Overnight classes use Medicine Bow’s campground, where you’ll make lasting friends around the fire. Bring your own camping gear and food unless otherwise specified. If you are not up for camping, local accommodations are available in Dahlonega. I can help you with phone numbers for those places.
Payment & Refund Policy
Each class is filled by first-come-first-served receipt of check (made payable to Medicine Bow, Ltd.). Then a letter of information and directions is mailed to student. A check received after a class fills (usually 13 students) is returned in full. A cancellation 7 full days before class also returned in full. A cancellation made 4 full days before class, 50% returned or 60% applied to future workshop.
Our agenda of adventure and education includes some of all the varied aspects of Indian survival, including: plant lore, crafts, games, hikes, camping skills, tomahawk, spear, rabbit stick and knife throwing (strictly supervised for safety), archery, Native American sports, Indian sign language, story-telling, naming ceremony, stalking, wild foods, plant medicines, safe knife use and lots of engaging intellectual games around the fire (one fixture at camp is a dictionary).
Archery has become so popular here in the regular camp sessions that, by request, I have started offering summer camps dedicated just to that skill and adventure.
Pardon the boast, but there is no archery program like this one. I pour my 25 years of experience into the best instruction I have yet experienced in any other camp or school. But this serious teaching is balanced by games of adventure, quickness, and discretion such as were practiced in Native American communities as well as in Sherwood Forest.
There will be tournaments galore, woods roving, and lessons in the 4 types of shots: direct, lob, clout, and at moving targets - all of which had their places in the practicalities of history.
Medicine Bow is a primitive experience, Monday 10 AM through Friday 2PM, for boys and girls 10 years and older who seek an overnight wilderness camp unlike other modern camps. We live in the forest…35 acres wedged into the Chattahoochee National Forest. One building, Medicine Bow Lodge, serves us for extended rainy periods. Our tools are stick, stone, creek, plants, fire, and knife - and a lot of well-made bows and arrows. We tell time by sun and moon. Our music is wind, creek, whip-poor-will, and coyote. Our philosophy: Look and listen to the Earth. Be mindful of your path. Live it fully. Then teach it.
Medicine Bow addresses honor, skills, and reverence toward life and all gifts of the Earth. We all share in cooking, water-toting, fire duty, and clean-up and take pride in self-sufficiency. I believe most campers leave here with an elevated self-esteem and a new sense of family. Friendships will be made for a lifetime. The exception would be a seriously homesick child who really did not want to come. The happiest camper is the one self-motivated to come.
I believe in the balance of fun, adventure, learning, responsibility, and giving a camper the freedom to succeed or fail in a project - to acquire knowledge experiencially - while guided by a helping hand. My assistant and I strive for quality, not quantity. We accept only 13 campers.
I am a naturalist and Indian survival specialist, but Nature is their ultimate teacher. I continue to learn all I can, side by side with the kids. I believe in the children…if I am to believe in the future.
As in all outdoor experiences, there are risks. Wasps, snakes, accidents are potentials here just as they are around your home. We do our best to prevent these things before they happen. We learn to move through the woods safely.
Since Medicine Bow is a low-adventure summer camp ( as compared to rock-climbing, whitewater, caving, etc. ) there has never been a serious accident. My home is ¼ mile from camp. From there a hospital lies 10 miles away.
Though I am not a hunter, I am not an anti-hunter. I understand the atavistic call. I do, however, disapprove of the way many "sportspersons" go about the hunt. Therefore, two aspects of archery that we will deal with are safety and ethics. Hunting is a personal choice that is heaped with responsibility. While I will not presume to tell the camper what to choose, I would hope to influence his/her way should the camper choose to hunt later in life. It should go without saying, there will be no hunting at camp.
If you would like to talk more about Medicine Bow, give me a call at
706-864-5928 or e-mail by clicking here.
- Mark Warren - Director Medicine Bow Ltd.
104 Medicine Bow
Dahlonega, Georgia 30533
(706)864-5928
