25 Forgotten 1950s Family Camping Habits That Vanished With the Station Wagon

In the winter of 1897, a Maine guide named Dale Merrick knelt on the frozen shore of Moosehead Lake, in a wind that had already killed his fire twice, and struck one spark from flint and steel into a nest of charred linen. It caught on the third try — a fire roaring while the lake cracked and boomed with cold, made the way men made fire before the match was ever invented. But the one skill Dale swore kept him alive out there, the one at number one, he never taught a single paying client. That flint and steel Dale trusted his life to is number twenty on this list. And here is the strange part: the way he made fire that night still beats the lighter in your pocket today. Most people think fire always meant a match, a lighter, a quick click of the thumb. The truth is far older, and stranger. Number fourteen makes fire from nothing but a hard shove of air. Number seven let Dale carry a living fire for three days without striking a second time. And the biggest secret of all — the reason he never once needed a match — is number one.