The Neihart herald. [volume] (Neihart, Mont.) 1890-1901, 1894-09-08


sonal safety. The Eastern Mime
sofa train from the south had iust
come in and the people of the
panic-stricken city hocked to it for
safety. A number of box cars were
coupled on and filled and covered
with men, women and children.
Some were bareheaded, some coat
less, some few carried pitiful bun
die of the more precious of their
portable possessions. Families were
separated, and in all this was mot
lev crowd of about 400 or more
people. The train pulled out just
ahead of the fire and succeeded in
ultimatly reaching Duluth.
About the same hour the accom-
modation train on the Hinckley &
ST. Cloud left for the latter place
with about twenty-five passengers.
Its path lay directly across the path
of the fire and their situation speedily
became desperate. Ties were burn
ing, rails were warping, and the tres
ties were sagging under the train.
The smoke had increased so the en-
gineer was helpless. He could not
see the train behind him. Burning
trees lay across the track and were
being g'tossed aside by the engine.
Suddenly the track gave way and
the train toppled off to one side.
No one was injured and they pressed
on to Pogema station, a few rods
ahead. But few feet in front of
the engine was discovered gorge
sixty feet wide and forty feet deep,
where trestle had been burned away.
They succeeded in reaching the
clearing about the station and es-
capped with few burns and bruises.
There were burned along the track,
however, four or five people.
The people who were left in the
city were in what seemed to be an
almost helpless condition. Egress
by the only means of transportation
that could hope to distance the
swiftly advancing flames was out OF
the question. Men had been fighting
fire for hours and the women and
children were in panic-strcken con-
dition. Horses were harnessed to bug
gies and wagons. Women and child,
rem were loaded in and probably two
hundred of them left town on foot OIL
in vehicles, plunging into the woods
across the Grindstone river, which
skirts the town on the north. They
were literally fleeing before pursu.
ing fire.
Over the hill that rises behind the
Grindstone is swamp, and to this
most of the people with teams headed
but it proved no protection. Some
abandoned their teams and ran into
the lower portions of the swamp, bu
the fire sought them out. Not ONT
was left to tell the tale, and thi
morning, in a space a little more
than five acres were counted IN
corpses. There were many families
of five, six and seven, and there they
lay, the men general y little in adj
vance, the mother surrounded by
her little ones, cut off by the mos1
horrible of deaths. Nearly all the
bodies were nude, fire having burned
every vestige of their clothing and
blackened and charred the corpses,
many being unrecognizable. Those
who fled to the north on foot follow
ed the Duluth track, and so rapid
was the progress of the flames that
many of them were actually burned
astheyAed, falling on the right f-way
for distance of three miles or more.
Nearly thirty bodies were recovered
along here.
Some of the foremost escaping
citizens met the Duluth train coming
in from the north. 1t was due at
Hinckley at 4:O5. Engineer Jim
Root was on the throttle. He stop
ped the train and took on board
about l2O refugees. BY this time
the woods were blazing on each side
of the track, and as Root reversed
his engine and started back the cars
scorched and crackled in the heat
Root ran his train back about three
miles to Skunk Lake and the people
escaped from the burning cars to the
water and no lives were lost.
People who remained in Hinckley
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