US EditionRailroaders raced through 'sea of flames' to rescue hundreds amid the 1894 Great Hinckley Fire
Engineer James Root reversed his train into a swamp to save about 300 people during the Great Hinckley Fire, which destroyed 500 square miles and killed over 400.
- On Saturday, Engineer James Root reversed the St. Paul & Duluth Limited toward Skunk Creek near Hinckley, taking aboard about 150 fleeing residents and reaching refuge at Skunk Lake.
- Drought and heavy logging left the region primed for a conflagration as the Great Hinckley Fire of 1894 was born of drought, weather conditions and extensive logging of northeast Minnesota pine forests.
- Flames rose 200 feet as hurricane-force winds hurled burning debris and fire tornadoes, with temperatures estimated at 1,600 degrees and the firestorm moving about 60 mph.
- More than 400 people were killed as the fire burned out in four to five hours, devastating about 500 square miles and destroying Hinckley, Minnesota.
- John Blair, porter , received delayed recognition and was sometimes misnamed as `Charlie` by passenger Mr. Vandever, despite saving passengers during the Hinckley Fire.
14 Articles
14 Articles
Pine Journal
Railroaders raced through ‘sea of flames’ to rescue hundreds amid the 1894 Great Hinckley Fire
HINCKLEY, Minn. — It should have been a routine Saturday afternoon train ride south from Duluth to St. Paul, about five hours in all. Then came the smoke. Passenger L.S. Meeker wasn’t alone in noticing the hazy atmosphere after about an hour traveling south on the St. Paul & Duluth Limited No. 4 train on Sept. 1, 1894. Then it got worse. Darker. “By 3:30 the sky was dark as midnight,” Meeker recounted later. Nobody on the Limited knew it yet, bu…
Duluth News Tribune
Railroaders raced through 'sea of flames' to rescue hundreds amid the 1894 Great Hinckley Fire
HINCKLEY, Minn. — It should have been a routine Saturday afternoon train ride south from Duluth to St. Paul, about five hours in all. Then came the smoke. Passenger L.S. Meeker wasn't alone in noticing the hazy atmosphere after about an hour's traveling south on the St. Paul & Duluth Limited No. 4 train on Sept. 1, 1894. Then it got worse. Darker. "By 3:30 the sky was dark as midnight," Meeker recounted later. Nobody on the Limited knew it yet, …
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- 50% of the sources are Center, 50% of the sources lean Right
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