ELEVENTH ANNUAL REPORT 



OF THE 



FORESTRY COMMISSIONER 



OK N1INNKSOT.A. 



Dry weather, continuing fully three weeks in some lo- 

 calities and with occasional strong wind prevailed in the 

 forest regions during the spring of 1905. It is a singular 

 fact that the worst forest fire of the year should have 

 started within the city limits of Duluth. A man whose 

 home appears to have been in Wisconsin was clearing a 

 small tract of land not far from the Lakewood pumping 

 station, and although the weather was very dry and the 

 wind high, he set fire to brush on the 24th of May. He 

 did not have sufficient force at hand to control the fire 

 which rapidly spread and soon threatened the pumping 

 station; damage to which however, was prevented by the 

 Duluth fire department. The fire rapidly spread east- 

 ward into Lake county. It burned over in all 3,000 acres 

 in St. Louis county and fully 35,000 acres in Lake coun- 

 ty, and was to a considerable extent, controlled by the 

 energetic efforts of fire wardens and their helpers in the 

 towns of Lakewood and Two Harbors. Naturally, exag- 

 gerated reports of damage were circulated; but most of 

 the country burned over was land from which the original 

 pine had been cut. The chairman of the town of Lake- 



