A late summer wildfire took a punch at two Amidon ranchers.

The punch was hard enough to spin Loren Jacobson and John Hanson sideways, but it didn't knock them flat.

Today at Marketplace in Bismarck, the ranchers will demonstrate their punch back.

The fire burned into North Dakota's rare ponderosa pines, leaving about 1,000 acres of fire-cured pines standing in the forest on their land.

The two teamed up to build log cabins from the burned pines. They raised one inside the Marketplace exhibition hall at the Civic Center, hoping to get people interested in the idea of buying a log cabin for their lake or hunting property, wherever a snug, picturesque structure would fit best.

It'll be on display throughout today.

Building cabins from the burn is a way of making prime burger when life hands a guy a bum steer.

The fire left about 40,000 tons of burned pine, most of it the right age and diameter for log cabin construction.

Hanson, who's overseen construction of the model cabin that was dismantled at his family's Logging Camp Ranch and raised again at Marketplace, has been in the log cabin construction business for a pair of decades.

The fire left a windfall of pines that should be used in three years, or decay and insects will set in, based on fire knowledge provided by the North Dakota Forest Service.

Hanson said the burned bark is peeled off the honey-colored logs, leaving an occasional scorch or smudge mark as a keepsake of the event.

The fire started Sept. 1 south of the Jacobson and Hanson ranches and roared due north through the night until it was stopped at a fire line held by local volunteer, state and federal fire crews.

No structures were lost and there were no injuries. Most of the pine forest was left intact.

In a way, it was a damn lucky fire, a description given some consideration as a name for the log cabin enterprise.

Instead, the two call it the Deep Creek Pine Log Co. for the drainage the fire followed up to their places.

They calculate there's enough right-sized burned logs on every acre to build one cabin, roughly about 70 in all.

The model cabin is small at the base - about 12 feet square - with a sizeable overhang for outside porches and a roomy loft inside.

Hanson said he wanted to try something different and he patterned the design after a Norwegian "stabbur," in which the second story is larger than the first.

The logs are saddle notched and left round to round, instead of flattened on the sides.

Hanson said the logs can be laid up in any cabin configuration and delivered ready for finish work.

If there is enough demand, the two plan to move into green pines, which should be thinned anyway to prevent another catastrophic fire from moving through.

Hanson said he and Jacobson would "appreciate" the business. If they make any profit, they can use it to pay for the fire's aftermath - clearing timber and fallen tree trash from the forest, killing noxious weeds that spring up on the burn and repairing fences.

Anyone interested can see the model cabin today at the Civic Center, or call Hanson at 279-5501 or Jacobson at 279-5797.

(Reach reporter Lauren Donovan at 888-303-5511 or lauren@westriv.com.)