I spotted this rusty pepper pot from the train on the last leg of our 5,000 mile Amtrak odyssey around America. With colors blending perfectly into the varied sepia tones of the Northern prairie, it might almost have sprung organically from the soil. In fact this is one of the survivors of a now vanishing industrial heritage in the Northwest. Known as beehive or teepee burners, they were once a common sight in the timber heartlands, glowing by night and belching great plumes of smoke by day. With their fires now extinguished, the mountains of sawdust are now disposed of in other, more eco-friendly, but surely less romantic ways.
