Storm Lanterns

Lake Chelan Mirror
Other than the occasional crow of a misinformed rooster at midday, quiet rides the breeze. It rests under the cloud-dipped sky and settles at the horizon where blue meets stubby wheat field, high on the Waterville plateau above Chelan. In Withrow, however, a tiny town 15 minutes from the top of McNeil Canyon, the scrape of a shovel against gravel and the slush of stirred concrete interrupt the silence.

Next to a silver grain silo, artist and mason Kamron Coleman hand mixes a secret recipe of pumice, gravel, concrete, and water in a red wheelbarrow. The concoction will make four of 99 pieces he needs to create one of his newly-patented Storm Lanterns, outdoor fireplaces he calls the “biggest risk of our lives.”

After two years of experimenting and an immense investment of time, energy and money, Kamron and his wife Cicely — who live in a barn-red renovated old church — think they’ve braved the toughest part of their business venture. “The hardest part is done,” says Kamron, as he heaves another shovel of gravel.

Storm Lanterns are both a new technology and a new product, he says. They’re based on a Lincoln Log-like design. The patented outdoor fireplaces come in a dozen different styles, some with attached tables and wood storage. They also have a re-burn chamber, making them the only product that passes Washington state’s law for recreational burning. It’s camping recreation without the smoke, says Kamron, and because the fireplaces are twice as affordable as anything else on the market, they provide masonry for people without a lot of money.

It takes Kamron two days to make one Storm Lantern. Each fireplace is handmade and custom-sculpted. “Sculpting is my passion,” he says. “I’ve tried forever to figure out a way to pay the bills and keep sculpting every day. Building these is the hardest and most challenging job I’ve ever had, but I get to create. Plus, I work in the backyard. It covers just about everything an artist wants to do.”

The couple’s fireplace story began two years ago. Kamron was building a rock wall in Spokane when he saw an outdoor fireplace on display at a hardware store. It was basically a glamorous barbecue with smoke billowing out the top, he says. “You could roast four hotdogs on it, but it couldn’t burn wood, and it cost $1,600.”

Kamron approached the store managers and told them he could do better. They didn’t seem to take him seriously, but the artisan began drawing plans. When he took a prototype back to the store, the owners were happy to merchandize it for him.

Kamron, however, wasn’t happy with the imprecision of his process. He used steel buckets for molds and cast each piece individually. He had to remove the concrete mix before it was fully set. Soft pieces sagged, many beyond repair. He kept experimenting.

Plastic molds were an option, but they came with an $80,000 price tag. Plus, Kamron didn’t want to work with plastic. He likes steel and concrete and wants to build with natural and rugged materials.

Epiphany hit last March. “Everything fell together at once, and the new process just popped in,” he says. Kamron hesitates to share too much, but he admits the process is 30 percent faster than his old method. He achieves almost machine precision, within 1/8″ accuracy.

The secret recipe Kamron uses to build the pieces took months of experimentation as well. One of the ingredients is pumice, a volcanic rock. It erupts at the first burst of a volcano and can take tremendous heat as well as cold. Using pumice allows a fire to burn in a snow-covered Storm Lantern.

The Colemans started their US patent process a year and a half ago. Kamron created designs, and they worked with attorneys. He and Cicely spent months buried in paperwork and research. Now, with the outdoor fireplaces successfully patented, the couple builds Storm Lanterns as fast as they can.

And why the name Storm Lantern? In 1991, Kamron lived in Samoa. When a hurricane hit the South Pacific island, he purchased a few Coleman lanterns for people who lost power in the storm. The good deed earned him the nickname Storm Lantern. Now he’s passed it onto his creation.

Photo: Kamron Coleman works on one of his patented outdoor fireplaces outside his home in Withrow. Photo by Celeste Hankins. Used courtesy of The Lake Chelan Mirror.

A full version of this story was published in The Lake Chelan Mirror.