Bonfire Glass

Bonfire, or campfire, glass is the product of glass that finds its way into a fire, and the fire is hot enough to reach temperatures of around 2000 degrees or greater. It's important to keep in mind that the glass that we purchase in bottle form and the like is glass in its liquid state. It sounds weird since the state is liquid but the form is solid.

In the extreme heat of some fires, glass begins to undergo a chemical transformation, and will eventually begin to crack and ultimately melt, temporarily reverting back into its solid state.When this happens, sand, metal, and ash from the fire will frequently adhere to this form. Once the fire has died out and everything has cooled down, these things will be 'frozen' into the mass.

On the Outer Banks, it's not uncommon to see a group of people around a bonfire during the summer months enjoying themselves.

Historically speaking, during the 1930s and FDR's New Deal, the Army Corps of Engineers were busy building the berm, or sand wall, that acts as a natural barricade along the entire stretch of our islands. There were no formal roads in or out back in those days and sand covered everything ....the men responsible for construction of the berm would camp out for weeks and months at a time, and would generally burn much of their refuse and then bury it within the berm. This is the reason that when we suffer a large storm that happens to breach the berm and wash out a section of it we often find a treasure trove of old broken relics from that time period, including bonfire glass.

Hope you enjoyed this video and the general information! I also hope you have a great time when you go to the beach, and to make it a great destination for generations to come please make every effort to leave nothing but your footprints smile emoticon

Pem