| Great Hinckley Fire | |
|---|---|
| Location | Pine County, near Hinckley, Minnesota |
| Date | September 1, 1894 3:00 p.m. (CDT) |
| Burned area | 200,000 acres (810 km2) |
| Ignition source | Drought |
| Land use | Logging |
| Fatalities | 418 - 800 |
The Great Hinckley Fire was a major conflagration on September 1, 1894, which burned an area of at least 200,000 acres (810 km2; 310 sq mi) (Haines & Sando 1969), perhaps more than 250,000 acres (1,000 km2; 390 sq mi), including the town of Hinckley, Minnesota. The fire killed hundreds, with the minimum number estimated at 418. However, some scholars believe the actual figure to be nearly 800. If so, this was the deadliest fire in the history of Minnesota (the 1918 Cloquet Fire killed at least 453).
After a two-month drought, combined with high temperatures, several small fires started in the pine forests of Pine County, Minnesota. The fires' spread apparently was due to the then-common method of lumber harvesting, in which trees were stripped of their branches, which littered the ground with flammable debris. Also contributing was a temperature inversion that trapped the gases from the fires. The scattered blazes united into a firestorm.[1] The temperature rose to at least 2,000 °F (1,100 °C). Barrels of nails melted into one mass, and in the yards of the Eastern Minnesota Railroad, the wheels of the cars fused with the rails.[2] Some residents were able to escape by climbing into wells, or by reaching ponds or the Grindstone River. Others clambered aboard two crowded trains that were able to leave the threatened town. James Root, an engineer on a train heading south from Duluth, rescued nearly 300 people by backing up a train nearly five miles to Skunk Lake, where the passengers were able to escape the fire.
According to the Hinckley Fire Museum:
"Because of the dryness of the summer, fires were common in the woods, along railroad tracks and in logging camps where loggers would set fire to their slash to clean up the area before moving on. Some loggers, of course left their debris behind, giving any fire more fuel on which to grow. Saturday, September 1st, 1894 began as another oppressively hot day with fires surrounding the towns and two major fires that were burning about five miles (8 km) to the south. To add to the problem, the temperature inversion that day added to the heat, smoke and gases being held down by the huge layer of cool air above. The two fires managed to join together to make one large fire with flames that licked through the inversion finding the cool air above. That air came rushing down into the fires to create a vortex or tornado of flames which then began to move quickly and grew larger and larger turning into a fierce firestorm. The fire first destroyed the towns of Mission Creek and Brook Park before coming into the town of Hinckley. When it was over the Firestorm had completely destroyed six towns, and over 400 square miles (1,000 km2) lay black and smoldering. The firestorm was so devastating that it lasted only four hours but destroyed everything in its path."
The towns of Mission Creek, Brook Park and Hinckley were completely destroyed. Sandstone was also burned.
Today, a 37-mile (60 km) section of the Willard Munger State Trail, from Hinckley to Barnum, is a memorial to the fire and the devastation it caused. There are several memorials. In the town of Hinckley on Highway 61, the Hinckley Fire Museum is located in the former Northern Pacific Railway depot. It sits just a few feet north of where the original depot burned in the fire. It is open from May 1 until the end of October. The Brook Park Cemetery on Co Rd 126, south of MN 23, has a historical marker plaque and a memorial to the 23 victims of Brook Park, with a tall obelisk on top of a granite marker.