Sparks Fly in the Old West by Jacquie Rogers

It's a Hot Topic

by Jacquie Rogers

We see “Sparks fly when...” in just about every romance novel, either in a review or the back cover blurb. A lot of emotional sparks did fly in the Old West, romantic or otherwise. I’m going to talk about the “otherwise.”

Fire

We don’t worry too much about making fire these days. All we have to do is go to the store and buy matches or a lighter and we’re all set for our outdoor grilling. But what did the lawdogs use when they were hot on the trail? Or the outlaws who were making that trail? They had to fry bacon and boil coffee some way, and there weren’t a whole lot of Thermador stoves or Super 8s around.

Flint and Steel

The use of flint and steel is the percussion style of fire making. Hold the flint in one hand with the sharp side facing away from you, and strike the steel at an acute angle. That makes sparks fly but you won’t get a bonfire from it—you have to strike the steel (or iron pyrite) near a charcloth or tinder and just hope something catches even the tiniest flame. Then feed it more tinder while shielding it from the breeze until the flame grows large enough to light the kindling. Once the kindling catches, then larger fuel items—logs, buffalo chips, brush, prairie grass, or whatever is available—and tend until the flames are large enough to provide heat and light.

Here’s a quick demonstration:

Our hero wouldn’t always have the perfect materials, though. Charcloth could be hard to come by on the trail. I watched a park ranger demonstrate the use of a flint and steel kit (consists of flint, striker, and tinder box) with no charcloth, taking nearly 30 minutes to gather the materials and build a fire. Keep in mind he was in familiar territory and knew where to find what he needed for tinder and kindling.

Imagine that you’ve ridden hard all day with little to eat or drink, unpacked and unsaddled the horse, groomed and picketed the horse, and now that you’re dead-dog tired, you have to spend 30 minutes building a fire before you can eat or have a cup of Arbuckles. This is why, with the new invention, flint and steel was quickly replaced by...

Lucifers

The first friction matches were invented in 1827 by English pharmacist John Walker and called “Congreves.” He didn’t patent the matches, but Samuel Jones did. He designed a cardboard box, with the warning, “If possible, avoid inhaling gas that escapes from the combustion of the black composition. Persons whose lungs are delicate should by no means use the lucifers,” and an industry was born.

The need for fire was great but unfortunately the “strike anywhere” matches did strike anywhere, intentional or not, and they gave off a foul odor. Worse, the factory girls suffered from phossy jaw, cancer caused by phosphorous.

Safety Matches

By 1855, Johan Edvard Lundstrom had perfected the safety match, and from then on, not many who could somehow get their hands on matches bothered with flint and steel anymore. These safety matches were still called “lucifers,” though, and would be clear into the 20th Century.

Even with matches, our tall, dark, and handsome hero still has to use kindling, so he has to collect the perfect, dry grasses and bark shreds to make his fire, and he doesn't have any charcoal briquettes, either.

Oops - It Rained!

The weather isn't always perfect. Rainstorms make it danged hard to find dry burning material. This next video shows what to look for. Of course, if your characters are in the middle of the prairie with nary a tree in sight, it’s a whole different game.

Pull up a log and have a cup of Arbuckles!

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Ciara Gold Heats things up - for cooking

Yesterday morning around 6:30 AM, I woke to discover my block surrounded by fire engines, police and ambulances. Our good friends lost their home in a blaze that rose at least eight feet above the roof. So yesterday, when I’d planned to craft a really neat blog post, I was down the street with my other neighbors trying to figure out how we were going to support our friends in their time of need. Thankfully, they were on vacation so no one was hurt. But the house is a total loss. The fire fighters were incredible, however.

Anyway, my first thought was to write on the history of fire fighting and how it evolved from neighbors passing buckets of water to organized teams paid by the city, but it required more research than my tired brain could handle after the day I'd encountered, so that may be a post idea for later. In the meantime, I’d written an article several years back on how to start a fire out in the open (for cooking purposes, of course) and thought I’d rework it for this post.

In 1800s, they didn't have the convenience of stovetop cooking or a microwave and while most kitchens boasted a wood-burning stove, cooking outdoors for a crew of hungry cowboys would look a lot different than what it might today.  
 
For the few scenes I’ve written involving cooking outdoors, I drew on my own experiences camping as a girl scout. We always had what was called a fire circle, a cleared place encircled with rocks. To begin, we dug a pit and fashioned what is called a key hole, a large groove that angled from the ground surface to the pit and provided air to the fire. My favorite style of fire was the A frame where we'd fashion an A with three smaller logs, then set the tinder and kindling against the horizontal crossbar of the A.

I remember one particular fire that I was trying to build. It was dusk and difficult to see, but we wanted roasted marshmallows. I fanned it until I was blue, determined to light it with only one match. The wood was damp and not cooperating, but I could see the glow of one spark and just kept fanning. Finally, we determined that the glow was a piece of orange yarn. Too funny.

After the fire is lit and coals begin to form, a grate is placed over the hole. Coals provide the most heat for cooking. We have in our possession a very large, flat griddle that is about twenty inches by twenty. My husband’s uncle made the griddle in the early to mid 1900s. I can just imagine the many meals cooked on it. We cooked a variety of foods from chicken and rice to chili to flapjacks to cake on the open flames. It was a fond time and one I hold dear.

For the cowboy with minimal supplies, he’d have to resort to using flint. Dried grass and leaves would allow for good starter material. The modern cowboy would probably have dryer lint with him as this is very flammable and an excellent starter. Starters are slow to medium burning items that will smolder until the wood catches.

If no cook wagon was around to carry Dutch ovens or grates, a spit could be fashioned from green wood. Yaupon is a native tree of Texas and grows in the Southeastern states. Green branches from this tree make excellent skewers for roasting meats. When wood was scarce for those crossing the plains, pioneers resorted to burning buffalo chips. It always amazes me the resourcefulness of our forefathers.

In my story, Once Jilted, Shauna takes the job of crew cook and has to learn to cook on an open fire. I used a lot of my own experiences as resource for this scene:

Though it took a while to scrounge all the ingredients, she decided on flapjacks for the morning meal. Lefty had shown her a four-legged flat griddle that was large enough to cover the fire pit. She dragged and situated the large cast iron plate over the glowing coals, leveling it with a rock under one corner.

After putting on a pot of coffee, she made sure she had all the ingredients she needed then mixed a large bowl of batter. Testing the griddle, she pronounced it hot enough and poured several spoonfuls of batter onto the sizzling surface. Next to the frying cakes, the water in the coffee pot began to boil. She smiled, pleased with her efforts.

"Ach, woman. Have you noo sense?"

She dropped the spatula, fell back on her bottom, and met the angry glare of Kane. "I’m cooking. Isn’t that why I’m here?" She righted herself and picked up the spatula, dusting off the grains of dirt.

"Aye, I can see that you’re cooking." He squatted beside her and placed one knee on the ground. "Has noo one ever taught you how to cook over open flames afore?"

She shook her head.

“Ne’er bend over like you were doing, lass. You’ll end up with your skirts ablaze or your palms burned. You have noo balance perched as you were.”

“I thought I was doing just fine.”

“Stubborn bird. Always put one knee to the ground like so,” he said, indicating his own position. “This will force your skirts oot of the way and give you the balance you need. Try it.”

She did as requested and found he was right. She flipped a perfect flapjack onto a plate and forgetting her annoyance, beamed at him. “Want to be the first to sample my cakes?”

An odd expression stole over his features. He rose without comment and walked away. She stared, dumbfounded. What had she said?