2.9 ft is a little short for making a bow, especially out of cottonwood.

My advice here is:  Don't make a bow.  Make an atlatl.  Cottonwood cannot possibly make a powerful bow, or even a moderately powerful bow.
  If you can find any really long slender saplings, then you can use these as darts.  An atlatl is almost certainly the way to go.  Do some research, and if you need any help with that, don't hesitate to ask.

Mr.Beaver. 

There is something you can do. You can go to Home Depot, Lowes, or any other such spot, and go buy a 1by2by6ft long red oak board. I will name other woods you can make into bows(from boards) They are as follows.

Hickory, White Ash, Green Ash, Black Cherry, Elm(somewhat rare in board form), Red Cedar(get a 1by3by6for this one), Walnut(spendy), white oak, pecan, mostly any hard wood.

Woods that wont work
Aspen, Cottonwood, Poplar, Balsa(thats a real duh), Pine, Basswood(suppose you could call it linden or lime), and Willow.


Did you get my PM? Then go to http://b16.ezboard.com/bpaleoplanet69529  You ought to get help there for board bows. Hope this helps.

You might want to go into atlatls, if so, check out my good buddy Daryls website, http://www.thudscave.com/npaa/index.htm. I met him a few years back at Jeffers, he's a great guy. He has all sorts of dimensions for all kinds of atlatls, all free! Usually, you have to send them website owners money for dimensions of stuff(paypal). Daryl's a great guy. He's also at Paleoplanet, under the name Thudling. Hope thsi helps-again.

If you can get lemonwood, then get it.  I've got one lemonwood bow that I bought here in England from a bowyer.  It's very smooth.

The best lemonwood comes from Cuba, and obviously the trade embargo in the US means you can only get inferior stuff from South and Central America.  In England, it is one of the main bow woods, adopted in the 19th century.  It compares very favourably to ash, but yew makes a more traditional bow, that is easy to make powerful.  You have to buy it, I'm afraid, from specialist archery stores.  The wood cutters ignore the grain, btw, because the wood is tropical and the grain can almost be ignored.

Yew grows throughout Europe, from Norway to Spain to Estonia.  But it also grows in the north west United States, which has a climate almost exactly like north west Europe.  It is of very good quality.
  Ash grows almost anywhere.  It is closely related to the olive tree, but it is much straighter and a little less dense.  It grows well in the shade, in many different environments, from the Great Plains to Cornwall.

Ash?  I suspect it does.  It does grow in most places across America.