The Best Picnic Ever - (Reflective)

The North Dakota badlands are a scene taken right out of the westerns, with its desert feel and its high ridged mesas. Setting does a lot for a story and large chunk of Peace Like a River takes place here in North Dakota. Enger sure is one that does his research. He includes many historical facts in this book, by playing off of the mysterious history of the infamous Butch Cassidy. It is still unverifide exactly how his life came to an end. A fact that Enger gladly picks up on and uses to his benefit in the novel. For an author who grew up in Minnesota perhaps he has visited the neighboring state and it thus inspired a tale of the west. He accurately describes the landscape through out the book and even takes note of its most interesting feature, the lands coal burning veins.

I having drove across the U.S. multiple times. I have driven from Idaho to Florida twice. From Florida to New York and than Ohio and even to Canada. But I have never actually made a trip through North Dakota.
In class we began to talk about the night of Roxanna's transfiguration. The night the kids recognized how truly beautiful she was. This was the night she took them in the middle of January under the "gibbon moon" to a midnight picknic. The place they hiked to seemed unreal. Just imagine a vein of burning coal and glowing orange embers coming up from the ground. It seems almost magical. I can imagine a spot to picnic that was sheltered from the harsh winds that trapped the warmth which seeped up from the ground.

This discussion led me to wonder if Enger himself had ever been to such a place. After talking about it in class I decided to do some research myslef and look up the so called burning coal veins.

There are not many pictures on the internet, but North Dakota is known for such burning veins. It is known for coal mining. I could not find that many pictures with bright orange embers ablaze, but the photos I did find really made the novel seem real. It gave it a greater Western feel, and it fed my imagination. I knew exactly where they were on their journey and what it looked liked.

I don't know if Enger himself had ever been to such a place when he was a boy, or if he just ran with his imagination.  Perhaps it was a little bit of both. But I can imagine a magical scene under a blanket of stars, in the cold of night, on top a blanket of food, by the warmth of burning light. What a great picnic. This is the type of place only the locals would know about. These places may take a hike to get to, but they are always worth it. The best part about such a place is the fact that so little know about it. Perhaps there is a place like this after all in North Dakota. If so, the locals aren't going to go posting pictures about it and ruin the secret. If not, I can always imagine.

* I used information found at http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/habitat/natareas/burncoal.htm
* I took my picture from: http://www.billyspostcards.com/Postcard/61635_Postcard_Roosevelt_Park_Burning_Coal_Vein_North_Dakota.html