Holt site residents carried out many different domestic activities within their village. They built houses and dug trash pits. They made tools and containers. They ground corn, shelled nuts, butchered animals, and dried the meat. Weavers made fabrics from plant and animal fibers, and tanners made leather from smoked animal skins.
Toolmakers collected fine-grained, light to medium-gray St. Louis chert nodules from nearby river gravels, and gathered chunks of grainy, gray or very dark gray Ste. Genevieve chert from upland outcrops. Then, they knapped triangular arrowheads and a variety of other stone tools, such as drills, and scraping and cutting tools, from the chert. Village flintknappers also prized Dover and Mill Creek chert, which they traded for with their neighbors.
Potters crushed freshwater mussel shells, then added the fragments to clay they had dug along the river bank near their village. Mixing the shell fragments into the clay prevented vessels from shrinking and cracking as they dried. This ensured successful firing of these watertight vessels. Potters formed jars, bowls, and pans for use in cooking, serving, and storing food, and fired these vessels outdoors, near their homes.