Los Angeles herald., 1906-05-19
Towns in Wisconsin
and Michigan Are
Wiped Out
Total Loss Will Run Into
the Millions and the
End Is Not Yet
Two Hundred Square Miles Swept by
the. Fire-Several People Perish
and Live Stock Is
Threatened

!}y Associated Press,
MILWAUKEE, Wis, May 1S.-A Sen
tinel dispatch from Escanaba, Mich,
filed at 10 p. M, says:
Driven by a heavy gale of wind, one
of the most destructive forest fires in
the history of this district this after
noon laid waste a tract of land fifty
miles square, and at a late hour to-
night was still spreading. At 9 o'clock
It was definitely known that the fol-
lowing cities and villages have been
completely wiped out:
Quinnesec, population 2000; Schaefer
600; Ralphs, 400; Salvoie. 200; Cornell,
500; Woodlawn, 200, and Talbot, 400.
At Worth and several other points on
the line of the Escanaba e. Lake Su-
perior road tonight at o'clock, when all
communication was cut off, fire had
reached the outskirts of the village and
no hope of saving property was enter
tanned.
Hundreds Are Homeless
Hundreds of people are homeless and
are being brought to EScanaba as fast
as trains can be sent to the burned dis
trict. In addition to the loss of several
SdW HllilS anu QUIET Du1luIIBS, HlllllO0S
of feet of cut timber have been burned
and great tracts of standing timber
\ badly damaged The loss of the I.
VStephenson company of Wells, from
\ burning timber alone, is believed tonight
will approximate several hundred thou
sand dollars.
AS far as known tonight no lives have
been lost although families of several
homesteaders living in the burned dis
trict are missing and it is feared that
they have been burned to death. Refu-
gees are arriving in the city tonight
and tell terrible tales of their eX-
periences in escaping from the sweep
ing flames.
Flames Travel Twenty Miles an Hour
One man declared that the flames
were advancing in the vicinity of Cor
nell at the rate of twenty miles an hour
when he and half the residents of that
place were taken out on a relief train.
Eomesteaders carrying packs of few
personal effects, who also had been
driven from their homes, were found by
the train crews at all points along the
right of way and were picked up and
brought into this city or left at stations
not threatened by fire.
1t is known that two camps of the I.
Stephenson company have been COM
pletely wiped out, and large crews of
men at work in the heart of the heavily
wooded country and with no railroad
facilities are in great danger.
The crew of one lum bering camp, to-
gether with fifty horses, fled before the
fire for a distance of twelve miles and
were reported safe at Princeton at 80
tonight.
Railroad Bridges Destroyed
1t is reported that several railroad
bridges have been destroyed and that
entire trains of cars have been burned
on the tracks.
All freight traffic on both the North
western and Escanaba (& Lake Superior
roads is suspended and the entire at
tention of the train crews are given to
relief trains sent out to move residents
of burned towns to places of safety
Owing to the fact that the rails have
been warped by the terrific heat in
many places, making it necessary to
lay new rails, the progress of the
trains was slow and some of the crews
have not yet been heard from.
Tonight the entire surrounding coun-
try is lighted up by the flames, which
are moving in this direction, but it is
believed that their progress will be
stopped before this city is threatened.