By Dan Lemke
Ellsworth, Minn. -- It's hard to improve on something that's been around as long as fire, but inventor Leonard "Lindy" Stoltz may have found a way.

Stoltz is founder of Nature's Fire, Inc., which produces a full line of natural fires and fire starters from waste wood and agricultural by-products. "We are the evolution of fire," Stoltz says. His starters and cooking fires are used by campers, hikers, snowmobilers, dog sledders and even backyard barbecuers.

Along with charcoal starters scented with Cajun spice, hickory, black walnut, mesquite, citrus and teriyaki, Nature's Fire carries complete pre-packaged cooking fires and campfire starters. The fire starters are made of aromatic hardwoods blended with agricultural offal like sunflower seeds, corn cobs and soybean chaff, traditionally low-value products.

"In most cases, processors will take this stuff and pay about $650 per truck to have it dumped into the landfill," says Stoltz. "Here we pay them and turn those raw materials into a valuable product."

"If your dog or child ate one of these, it wouldn't taste very good, but they could eat it," Stoltz says.

Stoltz began producing fire starters as gifts for friends and clients of a former business, making 6,000 units in 1984. Thirteen years later, the idea has flared into a full-fledged company producing 11 different products and doing business in 25 countries. Nature's Fire products are sold in numerous retail outlets in the United States, including all 1,900 K-Mart stores, and they will be in Wal-Mart stores by January.

But it's overseas where the first large scale markets have opened up. "It's strange and kind of sad," laments Stoltz, "but people overseas are more environmentally conscious than we are here in the states."

Nature's Fire recently received AURI assistance to purchase equipment which will increase efficiency for new domestic and foreign markets.

Mountain man
Born and raised in the state of Washington, Stoltz spent as much as three months of every teenage year working, camping and hiking in the mountains. There he gained an appreciation and respect for nature. Living and working in rugged conditions also reinforced the need for safe and reliable supplies. Several years ago, a friend was camping in the mountains when an avalanche hit the pack train carrying supplies. A propane tank exploded, killing a horse and scattering the rest of the train.

"I knew I could develop an alternative to that propane tank and stove that you cook on, that wouldn't leave a mark on the environment and was reliable," Stoltz says. The result was a complete campfire that burns for at least 45 minutes and can cook a meal for four people. In demonstrations, Stoltz has used one to cook for more than 40 people.

He's tested thousands of combinations of wood and ag products to find formulas that burn long and hot. Many of the fire starters will never be used in places any more extreme than the backyard grill, yet they are designed and tested to light at an elevation of 6,000 feet in a temperature of 30 below zero and 30 mile-per-hour winds.

Nature's Fire products have been tested and endorsed by numerous outdoor groups including the North American Hunting Club, Geese Unlimited, Kampgrounds of America, and others.

From Ellsworth to the world
Stacked on pallets reaching nearly to the ceiling, boxes of fire starters are bound for Saudi Arabia, half a world away from the Nature's Fire factory, several hundred yards north of the Iowa border.

Stoltz moved the business here several years ago from his tree farm near Sandstone. He's become one of the community's key employers, with up to 20 full- and part-time employees. The company also provides outlets for raw materials from orchards, elevators and seed companies.

"I don't believe in throwing things away," Stoltz says. "As long as we get a consistent product, we can turn it into something useful."

"The product is environmentally friendly, it utilizes excess crop residue, it's safer than some other options and it's an economic boost to the area," adds Steve Olson, manager of AURI's office in Marshall. "What more can you ask for?" .