THE LAND NORTH OF SUPERIOR

 <o:p></o:p>

There are many strange and wonderful animals, birds, fish, and other curiosities to be found when you get off the black topped highway and head of into the wilderness.  But there is one thing that comforts, cheers, warms and horrifies, destroys and even brings new life as it makes it’s presence known in the land north of Superior. 

 <o:p></o:p>

Long before man appeared the land was host to teaming hordes of life.  Forests and grasslands along with swamps and high meadows provided food and sanctuary for these creatures.  Savage storms would rip at the land and heavy snows would fall; but still the inhabitants would find refuge and browse in plenty.  But when the skies rained thunderbolts and fire these same safe havens would become death traps as smoke blackened the skies and raging fires scorched the earth.  While not exactly inline with the survival of the fittest theory, the weak definitely did not survive fire.

 <o:p></o:p>

Once contained by large bodies of water, a shift in the wind direction or doused by rainfall fire would show it’s second face.  The blackened land would grow a luxurious coat of green tender vegetation to nourish the animals and birds that had escaped the holocaust.  New growth would spurt, fueled by the carbons and other nutrients left by the fire.  A new cycle would begin in the ages old pattern; death would fuel and enhance new life.  Then came man.

 <o:p></o:p>

Man needed the animals, birds and the fishes that he followed to survive and populate this new world.  Man however needed more than the meats, skins and feathers found in nature, he needed heat. His offspring stayed small and vulnerable for too many seasons to make huddling together an option for extended periods of time.  Fire started by nature supplied roasted meat, which was found to be edible for longer than raw meat.  The edges of the burns left fires smoldering and the primitives would gather and warm their scantily fur covered bodies, but swirling winds and snows forced man to an act of great bravery.  He tamed fire and brought it into the cave and man’s future was assured.

 <o:p></o:p>

He learned to transport fire, cook foods otherwise inedible over fire; he used left over fire, charcoal, to tell his stories on cave walls.  Man learned other fire arts, such as better water, steeped medicines, cleansing wounds and tanning hides.  Early improved weapons were fire sharpened and hardened short spears.  He found that animals could be herded and killed by fire in quantities large enough to last the long winters if left frozen.  He learned that fire was also a weapon that could destroy whole hordes of intruders, or quickly clear stubborn opposition to their intended movements across this world.  Man learned metallurgy and the fashioning of plows and bigger, better and more efficient killing machines and their transport.  Man learned to keep fire-produced parts cool; man learned computers.  Man had tamed fire!

 <o:p></o:p>

Today industrial fires fuel greedy profits and produce goods purchased by the comfort hungry workers who watch news programs about lives lost in industrial mistakes.   Today’s homes are mostly made comfortable by fire, which kills countless people every year in these same homes.  How many millions of motor vehicles are driven by fire as they kill indiscriminately in passing.  Educated men and women hope to emulate fire to reshape nature only to find nature often has bigger plans of her own. Today man says he controls fire, though millions have never cooked hotdogs and marshmallows over an open fire on the shore of an inky black lake.

 <o:p></o:p>

Today’s man, wife and family live in relaxed comfort and proximity to fire as long as disasters happen on the other side of town or in some remote forest and can be aaahhhed and oooogghhhed at through the safety of the television set.

 <o:p></o:p>

But there is another kind of family who find peace and strength in quietly watching the moon paint gold on black waters as they sit by a gently crackling fire.  The fire is there for warmth, food and yes comfort, just like the original discoverers of fire.  This man and his family know that fire must be prepared properly, nurtured and carefully put out before leaving the fire.  They know that fire only loans itself to their purposes, it is never tamed.   This is the man, woman and child who come to visit the land north of Superior.  Come visit, be safe be welcome.