Great Hinckley Fire
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The Great Hinckley Fire was a major conflagration that burned an area of more than 400 square miles (1000 km²), killing 418 to 459 people in the process. The fire occurred on September 1, 1894 and was centered at Hinckley, Minnesota. After a two-month drought, several fires started in the pine forests of Pine County, Minnesota. The main contributor to the fire was apparently the then-common method of lumber harvesting, which involved stripping trees of their branches, littering the ground with such detritus. Another contributing factor was a temperature inversion that trapped the gases from the fires, the fires developed into a firestorm, with flames reaching over four miles (6 km) high and temperatures reaching 1000 degrees Fahrenheit (550 °C). Some people were able to escape by climbing into wells, or by reaching a nearby pond or the Grindstone River. Others escaped by jumping onto two crowded trains that were able to get out of town. James Root, an engineer on a train heading south from Duluth, was able to rescue nearly 300 people by backing a train up nearly five miles to Skunk Lake, where people could escape the fire.
In four hours the fire burned out 400 square miles (1000 km²) and killed more than 400 people. The towns of Mission Creek, Brook Park and Hinckley were completely destroyed. Sandstone was also burned. Boston Corbett was listed as one of the victims. It appears that this was the second-deadliest fire in the history of Minnesota, surpassed in 1918 by a fire in and around Cloquet.
Today, a 37-mile section of the Willard Munger State Trail, from Hinckley to Barnum, is a memorial to the fire and the devastation it caused.
References
- Gilman, Rhoda R. The Story of Minnesota's Past, Minnesota Historical Society Press, 1991. ISBN 0873512677
- [Minnesota Historical Society Library, History Topics, Hinckley Fire of 1894]
- [The Story of James Root]
External links
- [History of Hinckley]
- [The Hinckley Fire, AmericanHeritage.com]
- [The Great Fire of 1894, Minnesota Alliance for Geographical Education, Macalester College]
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