In Nauvoo every year they burn down an acre of land, the brush gets over 6 feet tall, so to clear it they burn it. It gets a lot of spectators and it only lasts about 5 minutes then it's all gone. It gets very very hot. They grow this prairie grass to show tourists what the pioneers had to travel through and the burn shows how deadly a prairie fire can be and how careful the pioneers had to be with there fires. It travels so fast I doubt you could run fast enough to get away from it. I have gone a few times to watch in the past but this year I missed it. Our good friend Durell Nelson had the grass planted, he has been over the grounds at NRI for more than 30 years. He knows more about plants and the history of Nauvoo than anyone I have met. My friend Jane Higley took the pictures. Her husband Scott is in the picture starting the fire. He works the grounds at NRI where Sage and Amber work in the summer. She said I could use her pictures since I have never thought to bring my camera in the past. (?) Jane just started a new blog and I am looking forward to following it. :) Enjoy the pictures.
8 comments:
Wow, that's incredible...that would be scary to get caught up in.
Um...not to be picky, but Durell was there starting the fire too. In fact, Durell was the one who had the prairie replanted there, and was in charge for 30 years. (Sorry, I just don't think he gets the credit he deserves.)
amen mom...
i do miss that prarie...
Dido to Kathy and Katy, he does deserve more credit.
I miss the prairie burning!!!! I used to look forward to it so much! I remember the year they melted the siding on the house just to the east of the prairie. That was before they cut down 3/4 of the block to make a stupid parking lot.
And FYI (this is a long comment and I don't mean to sound like the know it all that I am but...) it is necessary to burn the prairie so that the seeds can germinate, if it didn't burn then the seeds wouldn't be released and we would have no more prairie grass.
Whoa those are pretty sweet pictures! I guess I never thought about them having to do that, its sounds pretty neat!
I remember the year that Tacy is talking about. That was my first year watching the prairie grass burn. It was sooo hot!
That is wild. They would do that in Africa in the game reserves. They would still let you drive through it and boy was that freaky and hot.
I am SO sad that we missed that this year! They stopped doing it for a little while and that made me sad. We have to make a point to go next year.
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