The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1910-05-13
FIRE CLOSE To 10WN
Grand Marais Is In Danger OF
Being Eaten Up BY the
Flames
Last Message Received BY Wire
less; Operator Seeks
Safety
Relief Boat HurriedIy Sent From
Duluth to the MenaCed
Town
Especial to The Free Press.l


Duluth, May lit is expected here
the next time news is heard of Grand
Marais. Cook county, Mimi, it will be
that the village has been wiped out
! by forest fires.
There is a wireless station there
and message received from thera,
signed Blackwood, stated the fire was
bearing down upon the village and
that it seemed TO be doomed.
The operator said it would be his
last message, as the fire was getting
SO close he would have to abandon
the tower and seek safety.
The village of Grand Marais was
saved from destruction by forest fires
two years ago with great difficulty.
| The naval militia and employed labor
ers went down there on the steamer
Gopher and fought fire for several
days. Grand Marais is an old trading
post situated on the only harbor of
refuge on the north shore of Lake
Superior.
Steps are being taken here TO send
a relief boat to Grand Marais. 1t may
be much suffering can be prevented
and possibly lives saved. Grand Ma
rails is the county seat of Cook county.
Wild game is being driven to the
lake and moose and deer and even
bear show little fear of man. coming
close to settled communities The
wild beasts seem to understand they
and man face a common danger and
traditional fear is forgotten.
A settler named Latzala, whose
land is fifteen miles south of Eveleth.
Mesaba range, was burned out by a
forest fire. All of his buildings were
destroyed and he and his family of
wife and six children are homeless and
destitute
/ If rain does not come SOON there
will be great destruction of property.
/ Great anxiety is fell at this time for
the Hines tract of pine on the Goose
berry river. 1t is enc of the finest
tracts of white pine in Minnesota and
commanded very high price last
winter. 1t is the only tract of pine in
this state where every tree was cali
pered in estimating it.
No Lives Reported Lost.
AS far as is known no lives have
been lost. The total damage done thus
far is beyong any possibility of calcu-
lation. In several sections large
forces of men are out fighting the
flames. In others every possible pre-
caution to prevent the spread has been
taken, and all depends now on wheth-
er there is a heavy rain that will
quench the fires, or a high wind that
will give life to the element
Judging from reports received in
Duluth the entire northeastern part of
Minnesota is snoldering and smoking
with here and there forest fire blaz-
ing up and threatening some settlers
home, or some little village.
From the Reservation river, thirty
miles beyond Grand Marias, to points
along the Northern Pacific line fifty
miles west of Duluth, ccme reports OF
forest fires, and from Ely to the lake
shore the woods are smoking and
cracking. The passengers on the
steamer America from Grand Marias
brought the report that the little set
Element of Tofte was about half de-
stroyed by the fires. Tofte is about
twenty miles this side of Grand Ma
rails.
Two dwellings, the town hall,
church building and two large new
barns were burned to the ground The
settlers succeeded in saving eight 9th
er dwellings.
All along the shore from the city
pumping station at Lake Wood to Res
ervation river the smoke from the fires
can be seen The woods are dry as
tinder and cinders are frequently car
ried one or two miles by the wind,
starting a new fire when they fall.
The danger to the city pumping sta
ton seems to be over, although the
fires are still burning around Lake
wood. Railroad men reaching the city
from points along the Northern Pa
cifc and Great Northern report fires
all along the right of way of these two
roads. At Cloquet Sunday, according
to the statement of one of these men,
the citizens were fighting fires back
for several hours on the outskirts Of
the town.
City Surrounded by Fires. !!
Washburn, Wis, May 11.-Forest
fires are threatening the farmers liv-
ing in the Four Mile Creek valley and
those along the Northern Pacific rail-
way. The fires for two days have been
famed by high winds and large area
Of country has already been burned
over. Damage running up into thou
sands of dollars has been reported. |
Fires are now burning on every side
of the city, but there is no danger
here.