History? Because it's Here!
  • Welcome to History? ...
  • Sing Along to the Spring Siren Song
  • Ohio Ghosts Whisper....
  • Major Archie Butt Had a Gift for Friendship, Even on the Titanic
  • A Love Story for Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Valentine's Day Crossword
  • Titanic Headlines, Titanic Questions
  • Hoover Dam
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  • Alcohol in American History - John Barleycorn Tells Some of His Story
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    • Ignoring History is Irrelevant
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    • December 1, 1958: The Day Chicago Cried with Our Lady of the Angels
    • Remembering the Vietnam War - 37 Years Present
    • Rebellion, Murder, and Voting Rights in Rhode Island
  • Words and Remembrance-May 1970 at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi
  • Rub-a-dub-dub in Your Historical Bathtub!
  • The Freedom Summer Murders Changed American Racial Attitudes
  • To Beard Or Not To Beard - That is the Historical Question
  • Scarecrows Historically Speaking
  • Diversionary Thoughts for the Dentists Chair
  • Humans in History
    • Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, Artists of Montmartre
    • Grandmother Clara Zetkin Speaks
    • High Stepping Ohio Horseman
    • Philip Teitelbaum Creates a Money Making Machine
    • The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake..
    • Poul le Cour
    • John Collier's Fight for Indian Rights and the First and Last Superintendent of Indian Affairs
    • Lt. Colonel Ely Parker, First Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, American, and Australian Story
    • The Murderer and the Museum Curator - Nathan Leopold and Kirtland's Warbler
    • Wilbur Carr, the State Department, and Immigration - 1920-1945
    • Billy Sunday Preached His Prayer Pennant Willing Baseball Story
    • William Alden Smith, Michigan's Titanic Senator
    • Helen and Dickinson Bishop Survive An Earthquake and the Titanic
    • Faster Than Flames: Locomotive Engineer James Root Races the Hinckley Fire
    • Three Hot and Contentious Weeks in July 1925 - The Scopes "Monkey " Trial
    • The Confederados Become Brazilian, but Honor Their American Southern Roots
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goosedown Divorce
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, Australian, and American Story
    • The Molly Maguires - Trailblazers or Terrorists?
    • Lt. Uriah Phillips Levy Fights Prejudice and Saves Monticello
    • The Stavisky Affair - Sasha the Suave Scammer
    • General Santa Anna, Chicle, and Chewing Gum
    • James J. Metcalfe, Gangbuster, Reporter, Poet
  • Women Along the Historical Way
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Ida Tarbell- "Bachelor Soul." Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helped Her Survive the Titanic and Life Beyond
    • Clara Zetkin Speaks Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry - The Courage to Live
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Margaret Fox Kane's Victorian Love Story
    • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Acting History-History Plays
  • Practicing History
  • Classroom Clues
    • Power Point Pointers
    • Pieces of the World History Puzzle
    • Time Machine Tours
  • The Haunted Hollows of History
    • Does Columbus Haunt His Ships...
    • The Phantom Plowman
    • The Western Reserve and the Gilcher
    • The Ticonderoga's Haunted Bell
    • The Train Chaser
    • Mary Surratt
    • Farmer Brunett's Ghost Lantern
    • A Bicyclist Encounters a Phantom
  • Wading in Historical Waters
    • The Lady and the Patriot- The Fateful Voyage of Theodosia Burr Alston
    • Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk- Snatching Soldiers from the Fingers of the Nazis
    • Beaver Island - Mormon Kingdom, Fisherman's Paradise, Pirate Lair
    • Captain Jedediah Spinnet and His Sons Caught Fish and Pirates
    • Roman Emperor Caligula and His Legendary Lake Nemi Ships
    • Great Lakes Steamers and the Black Hawk War
    • Captain Harry Ward Cruised Gold Fields and Commanded a Slave Ship
    • "Father Put Me in the Boat-" The Story of the Northfleet
  • Catching Up with Clio's Creatures
    • Gertie the Duck, Black Bill, and the Muffled Memorial Day Parade
    • Verdun Belle Rescues a Shell-Shocked World War I Marine
    • Storks are the Stuff of Legend and Every Day Life
    • Susa White Gives Her Pet Lamb Nebby to Boston
    • Sergeant Stubby, the World War I Dog
    • Pistol Head, Cocker Spaniel, Combat Veteran
    • Sallie the Civil War Heroine
  • Creative History
    • World War II Photographs by Sandy Blakeman
    • Church Going is a Common Historical Experience
  • Musical Muse
    • Lydia Maria Child Writes and Explores Over the River and Through the Wood
    • Solomon Linda, Mbube, Wimoweh, The Lion Sleeps Tonight
    • Leroy Anderson Captures Fun and Feelings in His Music
    • Harry Barnhart Helped Soldiers Sing Their Way Through World War I >
      • Presidents in a Package-George Washington >
        • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
        • George and Harry Washington Fight for Freedom
        • Charles Wedel Served on Manitowoc Submarines >
          • Navy Diver Frank Prebezich Remembered Pearl Harbor by Salvaging Battleships
          • Stan Valentine at Pearl Harbor
          • World War II - Serving Aboard the USS Enterpise
          • Michel Linovich-an Italian in Napoleon's Grand Army
          • Charles Whittlesey- Scholar, Soldier, Humanist
          • The Five Sullivan Brothers Stick Together...
          • Kentuckian James Andrews and the Yankee Bridge Burners
          • General Grant, General Babcock, General McDonald and Journalist Colony: A Study in Scandal and Friendship
          • The Dudman Family Lived the Meaning...
        • George Washington Travels French Creek to Fort Le Boeuf
        • Miracle in World War I - the Christmas
        • Presidents in a Package - Thomas Jefferson
        • President James Monroe Inspects Michigan Territory - 1817
        • President Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery on the Steam Yacht Oneida
        • John Kissinger Volunteers to Get Yellow Fever
        • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
        • Violets for Valor - Two Bereaved Fathers in the Civil War
      • Clarence and Mildred Beltmann - Persevering Through Hard Times
    • Singing Kumbayah- Harmonious in Hope, Discordant in Derision
    • James Bird - The Battle of Lake Erie, The Execution, The Ballad
    • PDF Musical Muse- Music History
    • Phil Ochs- A Musical Conscience of the 1960s and Beyond
    • Dan Fogelberg and His Music
    • Philip Paul Bliss and His Trunk of Songs
    • Riding with Private Andrew Malone: For All of those who didn't Make it Home
    • Do You Ken John Peel?
    • "Mind the Music and the Step-" Yankee Doodle Sings History
  • Back Water River and British Bluster
  • Soldier's Stories
  • September 11, 2001 is a "Mixed Feeling Day"
  • Memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack Haven't Faded with Time
    • Memories of Pearl Harbor
  • Light and Radiance - Figure Skater Laurence Owen and Her Team
  • Historic Halloween Tales
  • Thanksgiving Perspectives
    • Drive A Thanksgiving Turkey!
    • The Centerpiece of Thanksgiving Celebrations is Giving Thanks >
      • Presidents in a Package - Abraham Lincoln
      • Americans and Britons Celebrated Thanksgiving 1942 in War Weathered England
      • Writing a Gratitude Journal for Thanksgiving Day
      • "Do You Hear What I Hear?" >
        • Christmas Eve, 1941-A Sailor
        • Alfred Burt and Wihla Hutson
        • Milwaukee Soldiers and Sailors in World War II
        • History Sports Scenes >
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          • Kenesaw Mountain Landis
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        • The Holocaust in History >
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Faster Than Flames:  Locomotive Engineer James Root Races the Hinckley Fire

PictureHinckley Fire Museum-- Wikimedia Commons
Engineer James Root pushed his locomotive engine full throttle. The lives of 200 people and his own depended on outrunning the Hinckley forest fire.

Conditions in the Pine, Mille Lacs, and Chisago counties in the Minnesota of the 1890s combined to make a combustible brew waiting for a match. This part of the state consisted of flat terrain swept by strong winds. Occasional drought years provided tinder dry forests for kindling.

Lumbermen contributed to these flash point conditions by carelessly leaving piles of wood waste and stumps to provide ready fuel for the fires. So did the pioneers themselves, who had a casual attitude toward forest fires. After all, the forests would last forever. What did it matter if a few trees burned? The forests were necessary evils to be cleared so they could farm the land. Forest fires helped get rid of the labor intensive trees.

Locomotive Engineer James Root Stops at Hinckley, Minnesota

These fire breeding conditions ignited in the late summer of 1894. Several small fires started in different locations and soon a flood of flame engulfed the countryside, advancing as rapidly as a tidal wave. A cloud of smoke blanketed the area. Some of the citizens became alarmed, but by now the fire crackled and couldn’t be easily extinguished.

On September 1, 1894, a train on the St. Paul and Duluth Railroad chugged its way toward Hinckley, one of the largest towns in the area. It was early afternoon, but engineer James Root had ordered his locomotive headlight lighted because a heavy haze hung in the air. He couldn’t tell whether the burning smell came from his engine or the blazing woods around the train. Engineer Root pulled into Hinckley at four o’clock in the afternoon. A terrified crowd stampeded the station.

Two Hundred People Board the Train as it Catches Fire

As soon as the train pulled in, the people rushed the train. They pushed, pulled, and clawed their way aboard, stuffing themselves into the cars. Soon the seats filled up and people stood in the aisles and even in the spaces between cars. Engineer Root estimated that at least 200 people had jammed themselves aboard and he knew that their lives depended on him. As the train lurched forward, a flame burst out of the cloud of smoke in front of it and ignited the engine cab and baggage car.

James Root thought quickly. He remembered passing a mud hole called Skunk Lake about six miles back. The lake-mud hole stood right beside the railroad track and formed a clearing where perhaps the people would be safe. He reversed the engine and began his race with the flames.

Engineer Root Wins the Race to Skunk Lake

James feared the fire might win the race. The fierce wind blew sparks that ignited the forest on each side of the track, and the trees created a roaring fire. The train rushed through an aisle of flame. At times, fiery tongues shot out from the cloud of smoke that rolled behind the train and it seemed as though they would engulf the train from the railroad bed. Car windows cracked and the woodwork of the train burned. Frantic with terror, passengers leaped from the train. A few people got up and ran down the track, but soon dropped, overcome with smoke and flames.

Engineer Root stood in the cab, flinching from the heat. His foreman stood in the water tank, ducking his head whenever the heat became too intense. Between times he threw water over his brave engineer. The train rushed on toward Skunk Lake, racing with a fiery death.

The Passengers Escape the Forest Fire

Finally, Engineer Root spotted the mud hole through the haze and stopped the train. Within two minutes after he stopped the train, the fire engulfed it. But the passengers who had trusted Engineer Root were safe. Some of them rushed into the lake. Others pulled friends and relatives unconscious from heat into the mud and water. The people in the water had to keep ducking under and those in the mud had to lie flat in order to save themselves as the flames leaped over the lake. No one could stand on the ground until four hours after the fire had swept past.

The St. Paul & Duluth Train and Engineer Root Are Burned

Engineer Root had pulled the lever and sank to the floor of the engine cab, exhausted. His clothing was on fire and his face and hands scorched and bleeding from broken glass. His fireman carried him to the mud and covered him it. The fireman and his helpers had supposed that James Root was dead or dying, but when people finally started leaving the lake, the engineer stood up. He staggered back to what remained of the locomotive, clambered into it, and sank down upon the cab seat. The train had been burned to the tracks. It was a long time before James Root fully recovered from his wounds and his burns.

Engineer James Root Makes a Difference in the Hinckley Fire

Another 130 people from Hinckley were not as fortunate as the ones on the train. They, too, had sought refuge in a swamp. Later, 130 charred and in many cases, unrecognizable bodies were removed from the swamp. One fiery tongue must have overtaken them all, for entire families lay in groups as if they had not had time to move. A few days later, grieving men dug a trench to bury the 130 people. They discovered that the ground was so thoroughly baked that they had to loosen it with picks.

Over 400 people died in the Hinckley fire. The death toll could have been 200 more if it had not been for brave engineer James Root. The Hinckley forest fire had devastated an area 26 miles long and from one to 15 miles wide. It consumed towns and settlements. In the entire fire scourged land, only the section house at a place called Miller remained standing.

References

Kathleen Duey, Karen A. Bale, Survival! Forest Fire, Minnesota, 1894, Aladdin, 1999.

Daniel James Brown, Under a Flaming sky: The Great Hinckley Firestorm of 1894, The Lyons Press, 2006.

 


Copyright Notice

All of the material on this website is copyrighted.  You are free to link to any of the articles and to download any of the PDF books to read and use as long as you credit me as the author. I fully hope and expect the classroom activities to be freely used.      kathywarnes@gmail.com
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Sunset on Lake Michigan in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
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  • Welcome to History? ...
  • Sing Along to the Spring Siren Song
  • Ohio Ghosts Whisper....
  • Major Archie Butt Had a Gift for Friendship, Even on the Titanic
  • A Love Story for Valentine's Day - Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen
  • Valentine's Day Crossword
  • Titanic Headlines, Titanic Questions
  • Hoover Dam
  • Journalists in History
    • Ernie Pyle
    • Robert St. John
    • Joseph Morton
    • Robert Cromie
    • Agnes Meyer and Katherine Graham
    • Walter Cronkite
    • Sigrid Schultz
    • Jack Denton Scott
  • March is Women's History Month!
  • Alcohol in American History - John Barleycorn Tells Some of His Story
  • As Relevant As Today- The Past Connects with the Present
    • Ignoring History is Irrelevant
    • Honoring a Veteran: Veteran's Day, November 11, 2012
    • December 1, 1958: The Day Chicago Cried with Our Lady of the Angels
    • Remembering the Vietnam War - 37 Years Present
    • Rebellion, Murder, and Voting Rights in Rhode Island
  • Words and Remembrance-May 1970 at Kent State in Ohio and Jackson State in Mississippi
  • Rub-a-dub-dub in Your Historical Bathtub!
  • The Freedom Summer Murders Changed American Racial Attitudes
  • To Beard Or Not To Beard - That is the Historical Question
  • Scarecrows Historically Speaking
  • Diversionary Thoughts for the Dentists Chair
  • Humans in History
    • Suzanne Valadon and Maurice Utrillo, Artists of Montmartre
    • Grandmother Clara Zetkin Speaks
    • High Stepping Ohio Horseman
    • Philip Teitelbaum Creates a Money Making Machine
    • The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake..
    • Poul le Cour
    • John Collier's Fight for Indian Rights and the First and Last Superintendent of Indian Affairs
    • Lt. Colonel Ely Parker, First Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, American, and Australian Story
    • The Murderer and the Museum Curator - Nathan Leopold and Kirtland's Warbler
    • Wilbur Carr, the State Department, and Immigration - 1920-1945
    • Billy Sunday Preached His Prayer Pennant Willing Baseball Story
    • William Alden Smith, Michigan's Titanic Senator
    • Helen and Dickinson Bishop Survive An Earthquake and the Titanic
    • Faster Than Flames: Locomotive Engineer James Root Races the Hinckley Fire
    • Three Hot and Contentious Weeks in July 1925 - The Scopes "Monkey " Trial
    • The Confederados Become Brazilian, but Honor Their American Southern Roots
    • Fascinating Footnote: The Goosedown Divorce
    • Clara and Henry Leffingwell - An English, Australian, and American Story
    • The Molly Maguires - Trailblazers or Terrorists?
    • Lt. Uriah Phillips Levy Fights Prejudice and Saves Monticello
    • The Stavisky Affair - Sasha the Suave Scammer
    • General Santa Anna, Chicle, and Chewing Gum
    • James J. Metcalfe, Gangbuster, Reporter, Poet
  • Women Along the Historical Way
    • Lucena Brockway Adapts to Life in the Keweenaw Copper Mining Country of Lake Superior
    • Ida Tarbell- "Bachelor Soul." Transitional Woman, or Both?
    • SOE Agent Andree Borrel Lived Several Lifetimes in Her 24 Years
    • Ruth Becker's Faith Helped Her Survive the Titanic and Life Beyond
    • Clara Zetkin Speaks Against Hitler in the German Reichstag
    • Maria Mitchell, America's First Woman Astronomer
    • Lee Lawrence Ansberry - The Courage to Live
    • Lydia Latrobe Roosevelt and the First Mississippi River Steamboat
    • Margaret Fox Kane's Victorian Love Story
    • Chicagoan Kate Kellogg Meets a Ghost on a Train
  • Acting History-History Plays
  • Practicing History
  • Classroom Clues
    • Power Point Pointers
    • Pieces of the World History Puzzle
    • Time Machine Tours
  • The Haunted Hollows of History
    • Does Columbus Haunt His Ships...
    • The Phantom Plowman
    • The Western Reserve and the Gilcher
    • The Ticonderoga's Haunted Bell
    • The Train Chaser
    • Mary Surratt
    • Farmer Brunett's Ghost Lantern
    • A Bicyclist Encounters a Phantom
  • Wading in Historical Waters
    • The Lady and the Patriot- The Fateful Voyage of Theodosia Burr Alston
    • Operation Dynamo at Dunkirk- Snatching Soldiers from the Fingers of the Nazis
    • Beaver Island - Mormon Kingdom, Fisherman's Paradise, Pirate Lair
    • Captain Jedediah Spinnet and His Sons Caught Fish and Pirates
    • Roman Emperor Caligula and His Legendary Lake Nemi Ships
    • Great Lakes Steamers and the Black Hawk War
    • Captain Harry Ward Cruised Gold Fields and Commanded a Slave Ship
    • "Father Put Me in the Boat-" The Story of the Northfleet
  • Catching Up with Clio's Creatures
    • Gertie the Duck, Black Bill, and the Muffled Memorial Day Parade
    • Verdun Belle Rescues a Shell-Shocked World War I Marine
    • Storks are the Stuff of Legend and Every Day Life
    • Susa White Gives Her Pet Lamb Nebby to Boston
    • Sergeant Stubby, the World War I Dog
    • Pistol Head, Cocker Spaniel, Combat Veteran
    • Sallie the Civil War Heroine
  • Creative History
    • World War II Photographs by Sandy Blakeman
    • Church Going is a Common Historical Experience
  • Musical Muse
    • Lydia Maria Child Writes and Explores Over the River and Through the Wood
    • Solomon Linda, Mbube, Wimoweh, The Lion Sleeps Tonight
    • Leroy Anderson Captures Fun and Feelings in His Music
    • Harry Barnhart Helped Soldiers Sing Their Way Through World War I >
      • Presidents in a Package-George Washington >
        • Mary Breckinridge, Circuit Riding Nurse and Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service
        • George and Harry Washington Fight for Freedom
        • Charles Wedel Served on Manitowoc Submarines >
          • Navy Diver Frank Prebezich Remembered Pearl Harbor by Salvaging Battleships
          • Stan Valentine at Pearl Harbor
          • World War II - Serving Aboard the USS Enterpise
          • Michel Linovich-an Italian in Napoleon's Grand Army
          • Charles Whittlesey- Scholar, Soldier, Humanist
          • The Five Sullivan Brothers Stick Together...
          • Kentuckian James Andrews and the Yankee Bridge Burners
          • General Grant, General Babcock, General McDonald and Journalist Colony: A Study in Scandal and Friendship
          • The Dudman Family Lived the Meaning...
        • George Washington Travels French Creek to Fort Le Boeuf
        • Miracle in World War I - the Christmas
        • Presidents in a Package - Thomas Jefferson
        • President James Monroe Inspects Michigan Territory - 1817
        • President Grover Cleveland's Secret Surgery on the Steam Yacht Oneida
        • John Kissinger Volunteers to Get Yellow Fever
        • Mary Todd Lincoln Considered April Her "Season of Sadness"
        • Violets for Valor - Two Bereaved Fathers in the Civil War
      • Clarence and Mildred Beltmann - Persevering Through Hard Times
    • Singing Kumbayah- Harmonious in Hope, Discordant in Derision
    • James Bird - The Battle of Lake Erie, The Execution, The Ballad
    • PDF Musical Muse- Music History
    • Phil Ochs- A Musical Conscience of the 1960s and Beyond
    • Dan Fogelberg and His Music
    • Philip Paul Bliss and His Trunk of Songs
    • Riding with Private Andrew Malone: For All of those who didn't Make it Home
    • Do You Ken John Peel?
    • "Mind the Music and the Step-" Yankee Doodle Sings History
  • Back Water River and British Bluster
  • Soldier's Stories
  • September 11, 2001 is a "Mixed Feeling Day"
  • Memories of the Pearl Harbor Attack Haven't Faded with Time
    • Memories of Pearl Harbor
  • Light and Radiance - Figure Skater Laurence Owen and Her Team
  • Historic Halloween Tales
  • Thanksgiving Perspectives
    • Drive A Thanksgiving Turkey!
    • The Centerpiece of Thanksgiving Celebrations is Giving Thanks >
      • Presidents in a Package - Abraham Lincoln
      • Americans and Britons Celebrated Thanksgiving 1942 in War Weathered England
      • Writing a Gratitude Journal for Thanksgiving Day
      • "Do You Hear What I Hear?" >
        • Christmas Eve, 1941-A Sailor
        • Alfred Burt and Wihla Hutson
        • Milwaukee Soldiers and Sailors in World War II
        • History Sports Scenes >
          • Throwing Out the First Pitch - American Presidents On Opening Day
          • Kenesaw Mountain Landis
          • Jim Rice - A Big Time Coach in a Small Town
          • Playing Lucky Baseball with Lady Luck Sitting in the Catbird Seat
        • Silent Night Had Simple Beginnings >
          • The Angels Song - It Came Upon the Midnight Clear
          • Stuffing Stockings on St. Nicholas Day >
            • Mrs. Santa Claus- A Strong and Supportive
            • Katherine Davis-The Little Drummer Boy
        • Is There A Santa Claus? Virginia O'Hanlon and
        • Carols Silent Night and O Holy Night
        • Happy New Year
        • The Holocaust in History >
          • Carl von Ossietzky Wins a Nobel Prize While in a Nazi Concentration Camp
      • City Scapes