Report of the Forest Commission. 53 



aster. As one man expressed it, " It looked as if no one had lived there for a 

 thousand years, and never would again." Not only had every green and liv- 

 ing thing been licked up by the flames, but the soil itself was blackened and 

 consumed, and the earth torn up in great holes and patches. Nothing but a 

 dreary, desolate waste remained. Yesterday morning, a few miles the other 

 side of Hinckley, a little live calf was picked up. How it came there or how 

 it could ever have escaped in such a fire-swept region no one knows. Not a 

 vestige is left standing of the town except the charred walls of the schoolhouse 

 and roundhouse, and two iron safes. 



At the time of this writing 200 dead bodies have been gathered at Hinckley. 

 Prof. Hayes, of the Hinckley schools, personally found 121 dead bodies on 

 Sunday and eight more to-day. By this time most of them have been buried, 

 but when the correspondent came upon the scene they were lying in two great 

 heaps — one containing about 100 bodies, piled indiscriminately to a height of 

 five feet. Naked, charred, blackened, torn, most of them are absolutely 

 beyond recognition, and those which have been identified were distinguished 

 only by some trinket or mark upon the linen. Trenches were being dug, and 

 into these the bodies were tumbled, some in boxes. The hasty work is hardly 

 to be wondered at, when it is known that not more than five or six men are 

 there to perform the offices of burial. It was only toward evening that friends 

 and relatives began to come in from Duluth and other points to assist in the 

 sad services. Other bodies are being found constantly in groups of eight 

 or ten. 



Grindstone Lake, 10 miles north of Hinckley, has been the camping 

 ground for several summers of parties from Hinckley. This year a larger 

 number of persons were camped there than usual, so when a fire .was 

 seen to be encroaching on Neal's place, three-quarters of a mile from 

 one of the camps, several of the men started for the scene. John 

 Patrick and two men named Ellsworth and Collins were among the num- 

 ber. Others were fighting the fire when the three men arrived, and it was 

 supposed that they could get it under control. The party had hardly reached 

 the place, however, when they discovered flames shooting out over the tops of 

 timber back of their own camp. Patrick started back along the shore, while 

 the others got into a small skiff and paddled as fast as they could, hoping to 

 reach the camp before it was overwhelmed, While they were still some dis- 

 tance away they saw the women rushing into the lake and the camp outfit 

 going up in flame and smoke. 



Patrick had not gone far before a mass of fire darted across the lake more 

 than a mile wide, where he stood, and he fell before it as it sped on through 

 the forest. His clothing was ignited and for a time he was completely dazed. 

 When he recovered his senses the fire was all about him, and only a narrow 

 pathway through to the water at the edge of the lake remained . The bank 

 shelves off steep along the lake and offered an avenue of escape . As he was 

 splashing through the water a stray dog fell in behind him and went along in 

 his company. The two had an encounter a little later with a large black bear, 

 which under ordinary circumstances would have attacked them, but the beast 

 sat in the water and only moved aside a few inches so that they could pass. 



