Hinckley, MN Area Fire, Sept 1894 - Eyewitness Account

THE FOREST FIRES.

Story of a Passenger on an Ill-Fated Train.

ST. PAUL, Sept. 4.---Several traveling men, among them James Lobdell of this city, who abandoned the ill-fated train which burned at Hinckley, have just arrived here. The thrilling story of their trip from the train back to Hinckley is thus told by Mr. Lobdell:

"I have been a traveling man for the past dozen years, and had been over the Duluth line so many times that I felt safe in making a trial. I was so well acquainted with the location of the streams that I though if we got in a tight place we could run into one of them and save ourselves. We had lost all of our baggage and we had nothing besides the clothes he wore, and each had a light overcoat. With the rest, Mr. Anderson had lost $12,000 of bonds, which could not be replaced. We got along pretty well for the first half hour, but then the smoke became so thick we could not see 50 feet in front of us. We were in great danger of being suffocated. We could not see the track, and the ties were burning beneath us. Each one of us took an overcoat and wrapped it about his head, leaving only a small opening from which to breathe.

"To add to the horror of the situation, every little while we would come across a dead body. We were only saved by occasionally arriving at a railway out where there was generally but little smoke. Two miles above Hinckley the dead bodies began to grow thicker. Most of them had died from suffocation. In several cases they had saved their heads by running them into sand heaps, only to have their bodies so badly burned that they could not survive. In one place we found four dead in one place---a mother and three children. She had laid them on the ground and then laid down on them in an attempt to cover them. On the way down to Hinckley we counted twenty-nine bodies. Many people ran directly into the woods where they had no chance for escape."

Mr. Lobdell and his companions found a wagon bridge and went in a roundabout way to a point south of Mission Creek, where they found a hand car and went to Pine City. The telegraph operator, Thomas Green, remained at his post until all but three building in Hinckley had been burned. When the depot took fire he ran to the safe and took there from $5000 in greenbacks and fled to the river. He remained in the river several hours when he joined Lobell and his companions in their trip to Pine City. Dozens of people tried to save themselves by running into the river. Some were successful, but many were suffocated by the smoke. Nine bodies were taken out at the same time this morning, and probably twenty or thirty more will be found. Everybody is in a state of bewilderment and, as all records are burned, it is hard to get any definite information as to the people or property.

Aspen Weekly Times, Aspen, CO 8 Sept 1894