The Great Hinckley Fire

The Hinckley Fire Museum, a former railroad office building. www.wikipedia.org - click to enlarge

  This summer we have seen a large number of bad forest fires here in the United States, but the biggest one is in the history books.
  On September 1, 1894 The Great Hinckley Fire began.  The Pine County forests were tinder dry from a two month drought and the weather was very hot.  The pine forest of Minnesota were being harvested and the brush, limbs and tree tops were left in piles there in the woods, that helped spread the fire.
  The fire, before it was out, had burned 390 square miles, that's 250,000 acres.  The Town of Hinckley was totally destroyed and as many as 418 people perished.  Some residents were taken out by train, and some made there was to the Grindstone River, but unfortunately not all made it out.
  The Town has been rebuilt, located midway between Minneapolis and Duluth, and while no one personally "remembers" the fire, the museum will tell you the story.

The remains of Hinckley in 1894. www.wikipedia.org