Feathers or quills, as they were once called were once used by old timers and some relatively newtimers as picks. I interviewed Joe Craft about 35 years ago and he mentioned using turkey feathers. They may not have lasted into infinity but the turkeys had lots of feathers and he did not play for hours on end. Joe had come to Arkansas from Kentucky and his dulcimer was sent to him by a relative in Kentucky. He was best known in the area as a banjo player and a moonshiner. His banjo playing can be heard in the John Quincy Wolf collection on the Lyon College site. I have seen several players use the quill and have experimented with them myself. There is a technique to it but a very nice rhythm was the result. Some of the players would trim the quill to make the point more flexible.

The history of the mountain dulcimer does have a lot of gaps but some speculation involves the route taken by many of the Scots Irish who migrated to North America in the 18th century. Large numbers of these folk left Ireland between 1700 and the Revolutionary War and landed in Philadelphia. As they worked their way west which most of them did they encountered German settlers in western Pennsylvania. Historians have indicated the Scots Irish got the long rifle and concept of the log cabin from the German settlements. They could have found the idea for the dulcimer there as well. Some historians credit the log cabin architecture to the Norse settlers and if there was contact with Scandinavian people the dulcimer could have come that route. There is also some evidence that the Scandinavians were the source of early Scots interest in the fiddle. Another opening for the dulcimer. Although I tend to believe that the idea leading to the dulcimer came in North America since there is no record of which I am aware of the lowland Scots or Ulster Scots having played dulcimers while still in Europe.