Karen Wils photo Cozying up by the campfire with a treat.

ESCANABA — Golden brown marshmallows all puffy and hot, sizzling slightly charred hot dogs ready for a bun; the sound of popping popcorn over a crackling fire are all part of Upper Michigan in the summertime.

A campfire brings friends and family together for cozy conversations. A campfire adds sparks, embers and light to the night at camp or in the campground or on the trail.

In the old “cowboy” western movies, beans, sausages and coffee cook over open flames. In the U.P. the same is true, but add freshly caught trout, corn on the cob and blueberry cobbler to that list.

The gas grill and the charcoal grill are nice for outdoor cooking in the summer, but many Yoopers still like to rough it and make a campfire. Scouting groups, rustic campers, backpackers and fishing crews like the challenge of collecting dry wood, birchbark and striking a match.

There are two main types of campfires. One is for watching the flames dance and glow in the coolness of a summer’s night. This type is often accompanied by a root beer, beer or a glass of wine. Sunburned faces gather by the light after a fun day on the water or at the beach. Lawn chairs and flip-flops circle closer around the campfire as the night wears on.

The second type of campfire is the heat producing “cooking” kind of fire. This type takes a little planning. Some good kindling wood and some nicely seasoned split pieces of hardwood will make a fire burn long and hot. A good red bed of coals is what’s needed to surround a cast iron Dutch oven.

Dutch oven cooking is an art all in itself. Back in the olden days, some of our great-grandparents used a Dutch oven over an outdoor fire when it was too hot to light a fire in the old cook stove. This heavy-lidded kettle left right in the flames sealed in the moisture and slowly cooked everything from chickens to venison stews.

The best thing about campfire cooking is not the smoke and the ashes that can get a bit annoying at times, it is the camaraderie that it brings out.

Light a campfire and the kids we come. Many years ago, I helped my dad arrange rocks to make a fire pit near our camp. Now, I wish I had a nickel for every campfire silly song, hunting story, ghost story and just plain reminiscing that took place around those campfire stones.

Family, friends, cousins, neighbors and quite a few dogs have sat in that circle around our campfire. I remember going for walks to gather “green” sticks to be used to spear marshmallows to be roasted over the fire. My brother Mike hiked miles to collect pine knots to make the fire glow different colors from the sappy insides.

When my kids were young, we’d try to make a whole meal over a fire. The long-handled wire grilling basket helped us cook grilled cheese sandwiches, hamburgers and awesome fresh vegetables over the flames.

But the best thing in the world cooked over a campfire is popcorn. Once again, a long-handled popper is used, a little oil and several handfuls of kernels. Into the tips of the flame the basket goes. It sizzles, you shake, it sputters, you shake. The aroma of popcorn popping on an open fire is an invitation for folks to gather.

Into the brown paper bag, the popped corn is tossed with a little salt and butter and shared by many.

Cook up some campfire fun this weekend, but always make sure you use caution and make sure every spark is out before you leave. Good night.

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Karen (Rose) Wils is a lifelong north Escanaba resident. Her folksy columns appear weekly in Lifestyles.