Wanna see an anvil fly? Go to Orofino or Elba.

Q: I attended an event recently in Elba, near the City of Rocks, where I witnessed a bizarre form of entertainment.

The locals filled a container with black powder, put an anvil on top of it and lit a fuse. The explosion shot the anvil 100 feet or more into the air. They did this over and over. I was concerned that the anvil would come down and land on someone.

Is this some sort of traditional Idaho entertainment?

BILL L., BOISE

A: I'm an Idaho native and have covered bizarre Idaho events for more than 30 years, but this one was news to me.

Former State Historian Larry Jones, who devoted much of his career to researching Idaho events, hadn't heard of it, either.

"It sounds like something the miners might have done, but if so I've never come across it," he said. "And whatever else it might have been, it would have been a waste of black powder."

Anvil-launching aficionados, however, don't see it that way. And there are more of them out there than you might think. A Google search revealed that there is actually a national anvil-launching competition in Mississippi.

Google also led me to Joe Huffman.

Huffman is the event director of Boomershoot, an explosives extravaganza near Orofino. Anvil launches, or anvil shoots as they're also known, are part of Boomershoot.

"They began in the South after the loss of the Civil War," Huffman said. "They were forbidden to have cannons and other weapons of war, so instead of rockets and cannons, they would launch anvils into the air."

Of course! The logic of it is inescapable.

Another theory is that invading Union soldiers originated the practice by trying to blow up anvils and other Confederate metal-working equipment.

Anvil shoots, Huffman said, "aren't common in Idaho, at least not that I know of."

To see one, you apparently have to go to Orofino or Elba.

Be sure to watch your head.

* * *

This was inevitable.

Last week's Ask Tim, on the near impossibility of finding anyone to fix an IBM Selectric typewriter in the cyber age, resulted in several calls and letters from readers reporting that a repair shop was still in business - and it is as close as Garden City.

That would be Steve's IBM Repair, 310 E. 38th St. Phone 724-8762. Just ask for Steve Anderson.

"It's just an old shop. It's not like a regular store," he said. "I like to make mention of that because some people expect an Office Depot or something like that. That ain't happening here."

Send questions to asktim@ idahostatesman.com or Ask Tim, The Idaho Statesman, P.O. Box 40, Boise, ID 83707.