Donny Dust: Reality Check
History Channel's Alone Season 6 Star On Living The Primitive Lifestyle To The Max
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From serving 12 years in the U.S. Marine Corps to appearing on the hit TV show Alone to now running his own primitive survival school based in Lafayette, Colorado, Donny Dust knows more than a thing or two about survival in wild lands using only primitive, handmade tools. The machine gunner turned survival instructor and author has lived through some of the toughest conditions known to man and instead of dreading such challenges, he has wholeheartedly embraced them, learning more along the way than most of us will ever know.
Donny’s story is compelling, putting on full display what humans can do with adequate knowledge and great willpower. He spends his days writing books, instructing, traveling around in the bush, and living the best life possible. Because of his busy schedule, we were pleased when he granted our interview request to learn about what makes Donny Dust tick.
Donny Dust’s Origin Story
Donny Dust, now 44 years old, was just a kid when he began to explore primitive societies and learn about how they survived. Although he didn’t realize it at the time, that interest would eventually become a central part of his life.
“I think it started at a young age, much like yourself, fishing and hunting and just being outdoors,” he said. “There was no YouTube, no anything except going outside. When you were in trouble, your mom made you come inside. I think through that exploration of the natural world, I was just curious about us and who we were really before we were us. How did we survive? How did we really get into this modern era? What was that starting point?”
Donny began a journey into the past, learning about plants and different ways to live off of what nature has to offer. And he soon came across what he termed a “unifier” for the different cultures.
“One thing I saw across all cultures throughout time was the use of stone tools,” Donny said. “So, at a young age, I started experimenting with them and using them. Then, around 2009 and into 10 I decided to deep dive into them and start making them, you know, seeing something in a magazine and then trying to replicate it. But more importantly, I was creating the tools that I would need for my own adventures when I’m walking from the Salton Sea to Mammoth Lakes, California, walking from one side of the state to the other, or just spending four days in the bush. It was about using the tools that they used to survive and, more importantly, thrive as ages continued on.”
Of course, Donny’s 12 years in the Marines had helped prepare him for his future journey. Beginning as a machine gunner, he was later recruited into the counterintelligence/human intelligence field where he ran clandestine source operations for the Department of Defense and conducted interrogations of enemies ranging from low-level insurgents to hardcore Al Qaeda types.
“The military was probably the best thing I have ever done,” Donny said. “It gave me a lot of ground truth into hardship, teamwork and what it is to ultimately serve. So, it gave me a lot of stuff to grow as a man, first.
“But then it gave me an understanding of and exposure to many different cultures around the world and their kind of knowledge skills. And it allowed me to see who they were as a people. It just gave me a lot of exposure and opportunities to learn.”
Donny’s Marine Corps career also gave him another gift that would serve him well in the future—resiliency. Of course, that’s a critically important trait for any kind of survival situation.
“It allowed me to find the absolutely worst conditions possible that you could imagine and really gave me something to utilize in the days going forward,” he said. “The worst day I ever had in the Marine Corps, whether it was combat or it was out in the middle of the desert shooting at a live fire range, makes the days after much, much easier. So, if I am teaching a class or having a rough day, I can always think back, ‘Well, it’s not as bad as this one day.’ It just gives you perception and self-management into who you are. But yeah, the Marine Corps was absolutely awesome. I loved it!”
Reaching The Masses
Donny Dust was a relatively unknown name until about 2017. That’s when he finally—and reluctantly—decided to get onto social media and share his experiences with others.
“I never really had a desire to share or post or anything like that,” Donny said. “And then someone gave me some pretty sage advice, ‘You know, it’s important to share what you know with the world. It’s great that you’re teaching classes, but you need to come out of the proverbial primitive closet, if you will.’
“So, I went on social media and as soon as I did, the kinds of the things that I was doing and showing people wasn’t the norm and caught the interest of the History Channel and Westfield Pictures. They made me an offer: ‘Would you like to go on Alone? Could you send in a submission tape?’ Then it kind of snowballed from there with different TV appearances, bringing out actors and actresses, and working in different movies as a technical consultant.”
His experience on Alone brought him lots of notoriety and even fame. When asked about it, Donny said that he believes that show is probably “the most realistic reality survival show that exists.”
“It is absolutely 100% self-shot,” he said. “There are no secret granola bars on the side. There is no random, ‘Hey, we’re going to turn the camera off and come in and talk to you.’ You are 100% alone, and if you are hurt, sick, or threatened, you actually have to deal with those things as they come at you. You can’t say, ‘Hey, production, I need you to come here because there’s a bear across the lake.’ You must have good situational awareness. So, it is very, very real—100% authentic.”
Paleo Tracks Survival
Donny’s desire to teach his primitive survival skills to others interested in the topic became a reality through his training school, Paleo Tracks Survival. He’s also involved with Survival Mastery, a website that teaches various survival skills. Through these efforts, Donny is attempting to reintroduce people to the natural world in a way that they can enjoy it instead of fearing it.
“Kind of my main goal with Paleo Tracks and Survival Mastery is really getting people not to fear the outdoors,” he said. “What I mean is fear as in the idea that yes, hazards can come, weather can come, there can be large predatory animals. But that shouldn’t be the one thing that keeps you out of the natural world.
“The natural world will provide everything that you need. It won’t lie, it won’t cheat, it won’t steal from you. It asks nothing from you. But you should want to go there.”
Donny said that since we all kind of come from that natural environment, being able to understand various aspects—like watching fish and how they move in a river and understand why they’re sitting in certain bends and what they’re waiting for—is important for those who have gotten away from the wilds. Other things like understanding how animals migrate and recognizing different plants when they bloom are also important.
“It’s giving an opportunity to reintroduce—a rewilding if you will—people into the natural world,” Donny said. “And from that rewilding, you build up a self-reliance in the event you are ever stranded or some other sort of scenario. You are now establishing self-reliance with the minimum amount of equipment. The stuff we become dependent on—you know, the high-steel blades and axes and tents, all of it—that is our requirement sometimes to go outside. For me, we can go out into the natural landscape and ultimately create everything that we could need from fishing hooks to fishing lines, to backpacks, to clothing. Everything really exists in that natural landscape.”
Those interested should check out Donny’s website for upcoming classes.
The weekend before I talked to him he had taught a two-day class to eight participants. The first day they all handmade their own primitive knives from stone. The next day they used those stone knives to process a bison from start to finish.
On Challenges & Living Life
Of course, even a primitive survival expert like Donny has faced some challenges in his life. One of his biggest was having a massive heart attack at age 37—something you wouldn’t expect for a man in peak physical condition in the prime of his life.
“It was not because I drank or did drugs or anything to that extent, it was just that my liver produces a lot of natural cholesterol in the blood,” he explained. “It was just the genetic lottery, and I had a heart attack. And I think a lot of people—after that sort of major life event at a young age—probably would have slowed down a little bit. They would have said, ‘You know what, I need to relax and take a breather.’”
For Donny, however, the heart attack had exactly the opposite effect. For him, it signified that it was time to ramp up, time to do things he’d been putting on the back burner.
“It’s time to eliminate the relationships that don’t bring you value,” he said. “It’s time to focus on you. And I think that’s the biggest lesson: As parents and as friends and as family members, we always try to focus on providing for everybody else. And sometimes if we don’t take that internal look and say, ‘Is this healthy for me, am I getting that kind of mental, physical, emotional, and primal well-being? If I’m not getting those, am I doing damage?’
“For such a long time, I was focusing externally. And after my heart attack, I started to focus internally and found that when I’m taking care of myself and I’m feeling good, then everybody else gets to reap those rewards—it’s that kind of energy swing. And it gives me more attention with my sons and relationships. So, focus on you. That’s the biggest life lesson.”
Speaking of life lessons, we posed a question to Donny that we have asked many interviewees: “What life lessons do you know now that you would have told the teenage you?” Donny’s answer was quite different and was food for thought for all of us.
“I think the life lesson that I would have told the teenage me is not to listen to everybody that tells you that you should do something else,” he said. “Never be afraid to sit at your own lunch table. Because there were many people as I chose to go down this path that said, ‘How are you going to make a living? What are you going to do by making stone tools and living like a caveman out in the mountains?’”
Dust said he listened to them at first but eventually stopped. He wishes he would have had that advice much earlier, since to him, life is about following your own path. He believes that it’s really how you go about approaching and embracing the things that make you happy that will help you achieve true happiness.
“There were people who said, ‘Hey, don’t write for magazines.’ Or, ‘You shouldn’t write a book. You’re not a writer,’” he said. “Or, ‘Hey, what are you going to do on TV? You’re not going to make a living from stone tools. You’re going to just make stone tools?’ And at a certain point, I had to say, ‘Yes, exactly. That’s what I’m going to do.’ And, I wish I would have had that advice when I was 17,18, 19 years old.”
Parting Words Of Wisdom
The future is bright for Donny Dust. He has a brand new book coming out this summer, Wild Wisdom, which he hopes will encourage many who have somewhat forsaken the outdoor lifestyle to reexamine that decision.
“Wild Wisdom will hopefully spark that curiosity in people to start venturing into the outdoors,” he said. “This should be that first book to read when you want to go out on that hike you haven’t taken in three years. It’s designed for everybody. It’s not at a super mastery level because that’s not the focus. Wild Wisdom supplies readers with knowledge, skills, and abilities on how to be more self-reliant when in some sort of dire circumstance, or even just something simple like a twisted ankle. It even teaches the easy way to read the weather.
“It’s a great one to stick it in your backpack. Use it as a resource that you can use to find answers to those questions about the natural environment. More importantly, if you find yourself in one of those survival situations where there’s no cell [Google] service, you’ll have the wisdom in your pack.”
Donny’s interesting outdoor life has taught him many important lessons. One such lesson is that life isn’t short, as some believe. In fact, Donny believes that just the opposite is true.
“I just want to keep living that life of adventure with the people that I love and really enjoy each day as it comes, because life is long,” he said. “I refuse to live by the saying that life is short. Life is very long. When you realize that it’s very long, you’ll slow down. You’ll start to accept the simple things that happen today, whether it’s a kiss from your significant other, a great sunset, seeing a mama moose and her baby walking across a stream, or even finally getting your bags on time at an airport.
“All those things add up to a great moment. Life is long, so enjoy every adventure that comes your way.”
Donny's YouTube Channel: youtube.com/@DonnyDustsPaleoTracks
Donny's Website: donnydust.com