The Fire Starter

We were camped at Flaming Gorge for Utah State University’s Archaeology Field School.

There were about 15 students who were newcomers to archaeology. They were young, strong and all had an abundance of energy - unending energy and all with a sense of humor too. A lot to handle for this old broad!

We had a cook! Wonderful Barbara, who normally joined us in the field school training but was injured. She had agreed to cook for us so her husband, Carl, could assist with the training.

In front of the cook’s tent was a nice rock fire ring. Every night one particular student, John, would start a roaring fire. Now this student professed to be THE fire starter for the camp.

He would gather firewood, trash and whatever he could find to burn - all the necessaries for a big roaring fire. We would sit around the fire ring swapping stories and singing to the guitars. There was much laughter!

At times Barbara would say we were going to have hamburgers and hot dogs for dinner and those were to be cooked over the fire. We had fire!

We were to move camp to a higher altitude for survey but because of bad snow weather at the higher altitude we moved across state to the BLM Resource Center at Heber where there was a nice ramada with tables and grills.

The first night Barbara asked THE fire starter to do the honors as we were having hot dogs and hamburgers. He stated emphatically he would have nothing to do with grills. And by golly he didn’t!

A few of us set about to light the fire grill for our dinner. John was nowhere to be seen.

He went to the local eatery in town!