650 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



good timber will not be known until the fires and smoke 



subside and accurate cruises can be made, but it is great. 



In a general way, it may be said that the fire started 



east of Bemidji and, fanned by high northwest winds, 



Photograph by McKenzie, Duluth 



RAZED TO ITS FOUNDATIONS 



Chimney, framework, everything gone. This was a schoolhouse in the 

 Woodland district, northeast of Duluth, which stood in the path of the 

 fire. Smoke still hangs behind the trees. 



swept across Cass, Aitkin and Carlton counties to the 

 suburbs of Duluth. Parts of Itasca, Crow Wing and 

 St. Louis counties were touched, and there were scat- 

 tered fires in other localities. 



. Wherever, and as long as railways could operate, 

 schedules were abandoned and trains were given over 



to the removal of refugees to places of safety. Auto- 

 mobiles brought many away from burning farms and 

 towns, but dozens of these were trapped and their occu- 

 pants burned to death. Hundreds of people, escape by 

 other avenues having cut off, rushed into lakes and 

 stood nearly submerged for hours in the chilly waters. 



Towns and villages in the path of the flames, and 

 wholly or partly destroyed, were Cloquet, Moose Lake, 

 Kettle River, Carlton, Lawler, Adolph, Munger, Five 

 Corners, Harney, Barnum, Grand Lake, Maple Grove, 

 Twig, Matthew, Atkinson, Brookston, Brevator, White 

 Lake, Pine Hill, Automba, Ronald, Salo, Kalbata, Split 

 Rock, McGregor and Warba. 



A summary of the situation, insofar as can at present 

 be determined, is that more than twenty-five towns have 

 been destroyed ; twelve thousand square miles of terri- 

 tory have been devastated and all of the settlers' homes 

 burned ; More than thirteen thousand persons have been 

 made homeless ; at least a thousand persons were killed ; 

 property to the value of from $75,000,000 to $100,000,000 

 was burned ; practically all of the horses and fifty per 

 cent of the other live stock in the district was destroyed ; 

 thousands of acres of valuable hardwood timber and 

 much pine timber is rendered worthless ; telephone and 

 telegraph lines suffered approximately a half a million 

 dollars damage, and highway and railroad bridges were 

 destroyed. 



Reconstruction plans are being worked out. So far 

 as they have been completed, they include immediate 

 supplying of food and clothing to survivors and feed 

 for the animals ; financing and government supervision 



Photograph by T. J. Horton, By Courtesy of the Minnesota Forest SerHce 



THE FIRE SWEPT WOODLAND 



This tract of fire destroyed timber is just south of Automba and indicates the character of the destruction by the flames which spared nothing in 

 their path. What timber still stands was killed by the fire and the timber loss in the fire area is complete. 



