How To: Build a Campfire

Remember this parable for a foolproof fire-building method next time it's your turn to set the spark.

Jul 24, 2008 Jeff Smith

Leigh Patton

First came the birds and they built nests. (Build a pile of dried weeds and teensy-weensy twigs; make it messy, thick but not compressed.) Next came Native Americans, and they built tipis. (Build a small tipi around the nest using sticks about pencil diameter.) Then came Europeans, and they built log cabins. (Build a log cabin tightly around the tipi using sticks slightly larger than the ones in the tipi.) Put a match to the bottom of the bird nest. Have a pile of bigger sticks ready to add as the fire grows.

Reader Comments:
Jul 30, 2008 10:28 pm
 Posted by  Lisa Hudson

For many years, I've rented a cabin on the northern shores of Lake Leelanau. When I got married and my husband began joining me, he was amazed I'd never had a campfire. I shrugged it off as a matter of inconvenience. It was just me so why all the bother of hunting down dry kindling and finely seasoned wood. In reality, I simply had no idea how to build one. Imagine that, a Michigan girl born and raised and I couldn't have started a campfire with a Duraflame log.

My husband won't be joining us at the lake this year; just me and our three year old intent on charring to death a bag of Jet-Puffed Marshmallows. How could I break it to her there would be no campfire?

And now I don't have to. I have birds and Native Americans and Europeans. Thank you, MyNorth, you are a life saver (although the Jet-Puffs won't agree).

Lisa Hudson

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