- What pioneers smoked.

For the most part the pioneers and settlers of the 1800s smoked tobacco just like people today.

But tobacco wasn't the only thing they smoked and in times of need they knew about botanic replacements for tobacco that they could turn to.

In 1857 Capt. Randolph B. Marcy was leading a contingent of U.S. Army soldiers that had to cross the Rocky Mountains in winter and without supplies.

He recounts that experience in his book The Prairie Traveler and tells of a tobacco substitute that they used.

"In this destitute condition we found a substitute for tobacco in the bark of the red willow, which grows upon many of the mountain streams in that vicinity.  The outer bark is first removed with a knife, after which the inner bark is scraped up into ridges around the sticks, and held in the fire until it is thoroughly roasted, when it is taken off the stick, pulverized in the hand, and is ready for smoking.  It has the narcotic properties of the tobacco, and is quite agreeable to the taste and smell."

Red willow, more commonly known as red osier dogwood, can be found growing anywhere from Alaska to Virginia and across to California. 

The Native Americans had many uses for red willow and one of them was smoking red willow bark.

Red willow along with a few other herbs is what was smoked in the famous Native American peace pipes.

Collectively these herbs were called Kinnikinnick.

Other plants that were smoked by the Native Americans as well as the pioneers and settlers include: bearberry, silky cornel, bunchberry, evergreen sumac, littleleaf sumac, red sumac, arrowroot, laurel, ironwood, wahoo, squaw huckleberry, Jamestown weed, black birch, cherry bark, corn and mullein.


Capt. Marcy earned considerable recognition for leading his men on his mid-winter unsupplied crossing of the Rockies without losing a single man.  It was a great feat of heroism, leadership and perseverance. 

During Marcy's career he undoubtedly had to sit down to smoke the peace pipe many times, so he would have had a good working knowledge of red willow and how to smoke it.

In recognition of his great experience on the western frontier, Marcy was selected by the U.S. Army to write The Prairie Traveler.  It quickly became an indispensable guidebook for every family heading west on the covered wagon trails.

You can visit the Pioneer Handbooks library for a collection of free downloadable how-to and DIY from the settlers and pioneers.

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