Grandma caught on fire a couple of years ago.

Lightning hit her at the tip-top, where the birds were nesting, and the resulting fire burned down her center trunk all the way to the ground, about 100 feet. It took area firefighters about three or fours hours to put her out. They even had to use foam, remembers Virgil Johnson, 74.

But "Grandma Tree," which has been called that since who knows when, is a cottonwood about 100 feet high. The tree, north of Bismarck near River Road, continues to live and leaf out despite nature's direct hit. And the tree continues to be the best play fort around. With her trunk measuring 26 feet in circumference, the inside part of her hollow expanse becomes a fort. Now, however, kids leave sooty, despite Virgil Johnson's warning for kids to stay away from deteriorating Grandma, one of many cottonwoods he has on his place.

The tree's sheer size and her stubborn endurance inspires.

Her story isn't the only story.

There are other tree stories, traditional stories and songs from various cultures that illustrate the fundamental role trees play in the folk beliefs. Those have been compiled and made into a CD called "Spirit Woods," a project of the North Dakota Council on the Arts and the North Dakota Forest Service.

The project started because of a story and a concern.

Glenda Fauske, the forest service's information and education coordinator, said the agency has an ongoing concern about maintaining a healthy cottonwood forest along the Missouri River - what's left of it since dams flooded much of it.

Mix that concern with Fauske hearing a magical Dakotah story about why there is a distinct five-point star image in almost every cottonwood branch, and Fauske's wheels started turning toward compiling American Indian, Germanic, Celtic and Norse stories. That evolved into creating a CD that would emphasize the cultural and environmental importance of trees.

Fauske said the arts council got involved and the CD, released in June, will be used in the Project Learning Tree curriculum for local educators and help meet No Child Left Behind's primary mandate of strengthening language arts skills through multisensory stimulation.

Award-winning storytellers perform them: Mary Louise Defender Wilson, of Porcupine; Rosalind and Timothy Koberdanz, of Fargo; Keith Bear, of Drags Wolf Village; Debi Rogers, of Mandan; and Judith Simundson, of Dubuque, Iowar, formerly of Mohall.

Defender Wilson starts out the CD with the story, "The Star in the Cottonwood Tree."

When renowned storyteller Dale Childs, now deceased, heard from Defender Wilson about the project, he offered the star story for her to use. She also used it recently while performing at the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian. She said she thinks the story's meaning in part is a message of the importance of kindness among people.

To the opening of the museum she brought small cottonwood branches, the cut ends displaying distinct stars. She distributed them to children in the audience until they were all gone - very popular items. She said she wished she had had many more.

Plastic toys weren't necessary that day. There is magic in just a cottonwood branch.

And also in a story that starts like so: "A long, long time ago when everything was new, up in the sky was a little star very curious and interested in everything …"

The story goes on to describe how during the star's travels near earth, the star, near a village, hears the most beautiful sound - the sound of people laughing and saying kind things to each other - and doesn't want to leave. But it knows it belongs back with the other stars up in the sky, so it returns to the heavens. But it becomes so lonely for the sound that it asks the other stars to let him return. The other stars explain that he can't, that the people in the village need to build homes, make clothes and find food and will be distracted by the star's light and won't accomplish those things. But the star figures out a way not to be distracting. And to this day, it's still in the cottonwood - so the story goes.

It needed the cottonwood.

It's not the only one.

The cottonwoods need help.

Fauske said the problem boils down to this: Since the Oahe and Garrison dams came to be, there is no fast spring current that helps create the sandy areas - areas of wet fine sand that the tiny cottonwood seed needs for germinating ground.

Fauske said maintaining a cottonwood forest near the Missouri River helps the community and environment. The giant, thirsty trees suck up pollutants from Bismarck and Mandan's main water source. They also make it a cleaner habitat for fish and stabilize the river banks.

She said there are programs to help property owners, offering money, for those who want to plant young cottonwoods.

A cottonwood forest is the natural look for the area, what Lewis and Clark saw, along with willows and ash. They look esthetically right to Fauske. She isn't enthusiastic about trees like the Russian olive tree, scraggly and thorny, someday replacing the majestic cottonwood that can live to be 300 years old in this area, 500 in other areas.

Something Grandma apparently is shooting for.

For more information about the $15.95 CD, "Spirit Woods," call the arts council at 328-7590.

(Reach reporter Virginia Grantier at 250-8254 or at vgrantier@ndonline.com.)