“Red Demon” in the forest
Compiled by
Rebecca Komppa
Historians Ray Etter and
David Jacobson wrote in
the April 7, 1949 Menahga
Messenger that early settlers
feared the “Red Demon” in
the forest – wild fire! So much
so, that some settlers built
underground dwellings with
provisions in them, in the expectation that they would be
facing a fire in the forested
land sooner or later.
The fire danger was a consequence of the logging techniques that characterized the
early logging years. Loggers,
knowing that farmers would
want to move onto the land
they were clearing, never considered planting new trees.
Instead, the dead branches
and sawdust left behind after
trees were felled, were left
heaped on the forest floor.
Such debris, called “slash,”
often piled up ten feet or more
and became tinder-dry in the
hot summers. Once touched
by flames, it practically exploded. 1
For settlers struggling to
clear the pineries for farming, fire was useful. Burning
was easier than grappling with
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Fire danger was a constant threat in the early logging days. Dead branches and sawdust left behind after trees were
felled, were heaped on the forest floor. Such debris, called “slash,” was often piled ten feet or more. In hot, dry summers
it became tinder-dry, increasing the danger of large wild fires. – Photo courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress
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Solutions found elsewhere in this edition
THEME: BALL GAMES
ACROSS
1. Alligator’s milieu
6. Semicircular mountain basin
9. *Many baseball teams wear it on
their chests
13. Ringworm
14. Big Island flower necklace
15. Long backless sofa
16. Antonym of afar
17. Estimated arrival
18. What racers do on CBS
19. *The goal is strikes
21. *a.k.a. Ringer
23. ___ Paolo, Brazil
24. Select
25. Shel Silverstein’s poem “___
Constrictor”
28. Elevated state
30. More agitated
35. “____ the Lonely,” song
37. Daytime TV program
39. Jawaharlal _____
40. Make a reference
41. _____ Island, NY
43. Cause of Titanic’s demise
44. Paint layers
46. *____-Pitch Softball
47. Slovenly person
48. Make wealthy
50. They oppose the yeahs
52. Fast-food staple
53. Pull one’s leg
55. Writer Harper ___
57. *Played on grass
61. *Infield
65. Romulus’ twin
66. *Free throw value
68. “Me and Bobby _____”
69. Part of eye containing iris, pl.
70. Mother Teresa, e.g.
71. Spooky
72. Declare untrue
73. NYC time
74. Olden-day movie form, pl.
DOWN
1. Back wound
2. A drunk
3. Afresh
4. Fast interruptions
5. One rejected
6. Horsefly
7. ___ bar
8. *Dolphin home
9. Trunk extension
10. *Shape of an American
football
11. Fixed look
12. Singles
15. Make dark
20. Neil Diamond’s “Beautiful
_____”
22. Part of a play
24. Military group
25. *Another form of bowling
26. It can be a tear-jerker
27. Sacrificial spot
29. *Subject of “A Good Walk
Spoiled”
31. Beaks
32. Often found under books
33. *E in baseball box score
34. *Named after school of same name
36. Giant Himalayan?
38. Site of Leaning Tower
42. PDA pens
45. Ski downhill
49. Gardener’s tool
51. *a.k.a. Seam bowler in cricket
54. Do penitence
56. Master of ceremonies
57. Foul substance
58. French dream
59. Black cat, e.g.
60. Wharf built parallel to
shoreline
61. Fender-bender damage
62. Fiona or Shrek, e.g.
63. He took a giant leap
64. Sandra and Ruby, actresses
67. National University of Singapore
stumps, and the settlers periodically set fires to rid the land
of the leftover slash. The prevalent attitude in the early 19th
century was that fire was beneficial because it “just burned a
lot of brush.” Small fires were
seldom put out. 1
The Wadena Pioneer Journal reported that in May 1881,
a wood lot of several thousand
cords burned for several hours
between Perham and New York
Mills. That fire was seen in
Verndale, where they thought
New York Mills was burning. 2
C.B. Bylander wrote in “Cyclone of Fire”: The summer
of 1894 was unusually hot
and dry, and fires were common. They burned all over
the Upper Midwest. The fires
were started by passing trains
whose smokestacks spit sparks
and burning embers onto the
parched landscape. Farmers
also set fires to carve fields
from woodlands, and timber
thieves set fires to destroy
evidence of their theft. Smoke
was so common in 1894 that
pioneers were often afflicted
with headaches and sore, burning eyes. 3
The Wadena Pioneer Journal
reported that in August 1894,
fires were burning around Menahga and along both sides
of the track. Sebeka was also
threatened by fire, with the
Long Prairie and Browerville
fire departments coming to the
city’s aid, as well as a dozen
volunteers from Wadena. The
PJ report also stated that Aldrich and Leaf River suffered
heavy losses. 2
John Bankord wrote in his
memoirs: In 1894, there was
a bad forest fire in Paddock
Township. My father-in-law,
Elias Ohlgren, and two of his
neighbors lost their homes and
all their personal belongings.
Ohlgren had a long beard, and
several times while battling the
fire, his beard would start to
burn. 4
For roughly 30 years, from
1890 through 1920, forest fires
peppered the newspapers with
stories of their ravages: 418
dead in the great Hinckley Fire
of 1894; mass destruction in
Chisholm in 1908; great damage in Baudette and Spooner
in 1910; and 453 dead in the
Cloquet-Moose Lake Fire of
1918. 5
In Hinckley, Angus Hay,
editor of the Hinckley Enterprise, reported in late August
1894 that fires were smoldering all over the region between
Duluth and Minneapolis. He
acknowledged fire’s value in
clearing agricultural land, but
he was concerned the citizenry
was getting careless. The blazes were destroying standing
timber and hay crops. Shortly
after Editor Hay’s admonition,
his town was destroyed by a
fire. 1
The city of Hinckley was located in the center of the white
pine timber region. The Brennan Lumber Company, the
city’s major employer, hired
roughly 400 workers and consisted of a sawmill, planing
mill, lumberyard, and a stable
of 90 horses. At the time of the
fire, Brennan’s wood yard was
stocked with 28 million board
feet.
On Saturday, September
1, 1894, sparks from burning
stumps at the Brennan yard
blew into the lumber pile. The
fire quickly grew out of hand
and spread toward the town.
The Wadena Pioneer Journal reported that logs lined the tracks in Wadena, on both
sides, for half a mile during the golden years of logging. It was not uncommon for fires
to be started by passing trains, such as this logging train in the Park Rapids area, whose
smokestacks spit sparks and burning embers. It was especially a risk during the hot, dry
summer months. – Photo courtesy of the U.S. Library of Congress
Firefighters and mill hands
tried to keep ahead of the
flames. 5 By mid-afternoon,
a gigantic wall of flame developed as smaller fires, fed
by the wind and cool air,
combined into a racing cyclonic fury – a firestorm. 6
Fire Chief Craig assessed the
futility and ordered the men
to abandon equipment and
evacuate the town.
It was impossible to outrun the wall of flame, though
many tried and perished.
People were saved in the
Grindstone River and in a
water-filled pit in the center
of town. Those who somehow survived in water holes,
potato fields or by some other miracle, were in very poor
condition. Their lungs were
burned from the hot air, their
eyes swollen shut from the
smoke, and their arms and
legs burned and blistered. 6
Two trains, the Eastern
Minnesota (a division of
the Great Northern) and the
St. Paul & Duluth Railroad
were instrumental in saving
many lives. One of the many
heroes was the St. Paul &
Duluth Depot telegrapher,
Tommy Dunn. He remained
loyal to his post and waited
for orders. Eventually the
very tracks the trains traveled
on burned – and no orders
came. Tommy’s last message tapped out on his key to
the agent in Barnum was, “I
think I’ve stayed too long.”
He had waited until it was
too late for his own escape. 6
Engineer Jim Root was
another hero. He rammed
his train through the flames,
with train and tracks on fire,
to the edge of Skunk Lake,
where his frantic passengers
took refuge in the lake’s
shallow water.
One survivor later told reporters, “It was just like the
Last Day, with everybody
trying to escape hell.” 1 A
total of 418 people in Hinckley and the surrounding area
perished.
That fire covered 480
square miles, consuming everything in its path. The city
of Hinckley sustained the
greatest loss of life and property, but the fire also burned
Mission Creek and Brook
Park and spread over parts
of five counties. It reached
as far as Blowers Township.
Harold Windels recalled:
When the fire came through
this area, it completely
burned out the Fred Bruining farm, including some of
the topsoil lying east of the
buildings. They could see
the smoke and smell the fire for
about five days before it burnt
the farm. There were no roads,
telephones, or news about what
kind of fire it was.
Bruining took his walking
plow and started plowing a
field west of the house, going
around it in a large circle. As
the smoke got heavier each day,
they soon started carrying their
earthly goods, including cattle,
horses, sheep and chickens to
the center of the field. They
also stockpiled a large quantity of water there. When the
fire came through, they soaked
all the blankets they could find
and covered themselves with
them. They survived. 7
The last of the four great
fires in Minnesota coincided
with World War I, and the destructive parallels between the
two would not go unnoticed. It
burst upon the lumber town of
Cloquet on October 12, 1918.
The fire obliterated Cloquet
and the settlement of Moose
Lake and touched the outskirts of Duluth in the dead of
night, sending thousands fleeing. More than four hundred
people died, probably many
more. Many backwoods families were “overtaken in helpless flight on those lonely forest trails,” one correspondent
(Continued on Page 7)
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