[wideminded]

Why don't we ever hear of bogs and/or peat in North America?

[redhead]

"Why don't we ever hear of bogs and/or peat in North America?"

Alaska has lots of them, but most are frozen in permafrost. Around here, peat is called "muskeg." Some of the bogs are quite deep. My sister and I were stuck in muskeg when we were quite small, and had to be rescued.

[chemicalman]

Peat's too busy picking a peck of pickled peppers.

[jla]

Why don't we ever hear of bogs and/or peat in North America?

We call them swamps or marshlands/grass and moss.

[jla]

...and we've been heating our homes with natural gas or electricity whilst many Irish still burned 'turf'. It all goes with economic advancement, so this is why the bogs were developed in Ireland, enabling a cheap fuel source for the populace.

Here's a good source regarding the history of peat production in Ireland - Bord na Móna

[mwyounce]

The Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia is a peat bog.

[syriacus]

We had a peat bog behind our house in Illinois in a town southwest of Chicago.

My father called the large empty lots the "back forty." We kids called it "the prairie" until the land was finally mowed.

Houses were not built on the land, for fear that the foundations would crack.

For some time, fires smoldered within the bog, occasionally flaring up enough that the fire department had to be called.

The good old days.

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

I spent some summers in northern Wisconsin (the place where many waters gather.) There there was a small lake that was almost covered with spaghnum. It was several feet thick. You could walk on the spaghnum that covered the lake, it felt like you were on a waterbed. I would call this a bog. Had to be careful not to find a soft spot. You could slip thru the sphagnum and be trapped.

At some point after the lake covered over I assume it would be possible to cut it and use it for fuel. Most peat is mined and used in gardening in the US.

[mad_as_he$$]

Bogs was a pitcher and Peat played foot ball - don't know what you mean.

[RouxStir]

"Why don't we ever hear of bogs and/or peat in North America?"

There's a pretty interesting bog near out West. Not much to see but of historical significance. I think it is in or near the Great Basin. The bog has (or had) thick slabs of peat that were over ice that stayed frozen year 'round because the peat insulated the ice. When travelers on the Oregon trail began going through the area, the native Americans showed them the bog as a source of water. The travelers would cut blocks of ice from the bog and pack them on their wagons, insulated with peat. They collected the cold water as the ice melted.

I was on a bicyle trip that followed the Oregon Trail when I visited the site in the early 80's and the bog was still visible but was part of a cattle pasture. The cattle congregated there and it was essentially a big mud hole when I saw it. Although , supposedly, the peat extended further back from where the cattle were.