Kule Loklo

 

 

I spent a weekend at Point Reyes National Seashore, a vastly underrated national park in California north of San Francisco.  I planned to spend Saturday taking classes and Sunday hiking nine miles through the Tule Elk reserve to do some tracking and observation.  Unfortunately, my Sunday was “cancelled” due to car trouble.  🙁

Between classes, I relaxed at Kule Loklo.  Kule Loklo is a re-creation of a Coast Miwok village as it would look about 200 years ago.  It’s used as a setting for educational programs and traditional skills classes.  I found the visit interesting and thought I would share it with you.  I know little about the Miwok, since this is not my home area.  So most of the information I’m sharing comes from park documentation.

This is a picture of the main sweat lodge.  It is still used as a ceremonial sweat lodge so the general public is not permitted to enter.  It is a very large structure buried beneath a mound.

 

 

The villagers lived in “kotca” (place where the people live).  Extended families of five or more may have lived in these structures.  They were constructed of Tule (a grass) or Redwood bark.  They are conical in shape.  Near each kotca is an acorn granary.  With similar construction, the granaries protected the acorns from insect pests and other animals.  They appeared to keep the acorns high off the ground and protect them from the weather. 

 

 

 

The sides of the kotca are enormous slabs of redwood bark.  The poles that support the structure are lashed together.  The reconstructions were lashed with twine.

 

 

 

 

 

The village also had a family sweat lodge that I was permitted to enter.  It is also underneath an earth mound.  A low-ceilinged tunnel leads to a central chamber.  I have tried to reproduce the lighting, but the inside is actually darker than shown.  It was the kind of place that inspired the imagination. 

 

 

 

 

For those of you who have not been to Pt. Reyes, it has an incredible diversity of wildlife from Elk to Elephant Seals.  Here is a picture of some California Quail near the visitor center.  You really have to go out of your way to see wildlife. 🙂

 

 

Share your thoughts

Have you visited any interesting reconstructions?

 

More Natural History on NatureOutside

Archaeology, Technology, and Native Peoples

The Tuibun of Coyote Hills (Part 1)

The Tuibun of Coyote Hills (Part 2)

 

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