The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-09-02
Smoke So Dense and Heat So Great
that People at Duluth and Superior
Could Work Only with Difficulty.
TELEGRAPH POLES BURNED
And Communication with Many
Places Interrupted.
Several Towns Reported in Ashes,
Their Citizens Homeless and Some
Believed to Have Perished.

ST. PAUL, Sept but meager reports
have thus far been received from the forest
fires in northern Minnesota and Wisconsin,
but enough is known to state that the fires
are raging more furiously than at any
previous time this year. The wires be-
tween here and Duluth went down at
O'Clock this afternoon, and IL
is doubtful whether any wire
will be had all night. There is one
very roundabout railroad wire still work.
ing, but little or nothing has yet come
over it. The fires are widespread and the
smoke is very dense. At Duluth and West
Superior to-day the smoke was so dense
that people found work difficult, while the
heat was scarcely endurable Railroad men
report inability to far a hundred
feet and business was at standstill Wild
reports Of fires were current, and lit has
been extremely difficult to obtain any news
that is definite. The fires are very severe
about Mission creek, short distance this
side of Duluth. A dispatch from South
Range, Wis, asking help of West Superior.
stated that the town was threatened and
in a similar way a like report comes from
Wrenshall, Mimi.
Along the Great Northern the damage is
enormous. A special train carrying fire
fighters was sent out of st. Cloud this
afternoon in respone to calls for help from
Milac. AT Foley, eighteen miles from St
Cloud, the timber burning furiously.
All the country to the south and east OF
Bridgeman Station was on fire, and
high wind swept the fire before il, tail
pines crashing down in the burning under
brush as the flames ate into
them. The people are panic
stricken and fear destruction OF
everything. The St. Cloud fire fighters
saved the big bridge over Rum river near
Bridgeman. The large lumber mill and
yards of Foley Brothers and Guthrie are
being soaked with water in the hope that
they may be saved. The young deaf and
dumb child of Mr.. Ellison. west of Bridge
man, has been burned to death. August
Jackson was surrounded by fire on the
Bloomberger farm and his death seems Ger
tain. 1t is impossible for trains to reach
Milac. The people there have been driven
from their homes and are anxiously await
ing succor. Kennett McLain, a farmer near
Bridgemaa, lost all his possessions.
North of Pine City the fires are raging
furiously, sweeping everything before them.
Settlers have abandoned their homes and
taken refuge in marshes, and the heat and
smoke is suffocating. The ST. Paul & Du-
waiting to get through to Duluth. Several
crews are at work repairing burnt culverts
to get their trains through tonight. There
is no communication with Hfnckley, and
it is feared that town is in imminent dan
ger There is no danger in Pine City at
present Relief trains have been sent out
from there to aid distressed settlers. At
midnight the wind had died down and hope
| has increased.
II was learned at a late hour tonight,
| from officials of the Omaha road, that the
| town of Baronette, Wis, had been wiped
| out by the fires. News from railroad sources
! is very fragmentary and nothing more can
| be obtained. All wires to Duluth, West Su-
| perior and the First district in general are
| still down at 1:3O a. m, with little prospect
of their being patched up tonight, and no
more news can be obj a.led.