Chisholm, MN Fire, Sept 1908 - Origin of Fire

Spark From Engine Started Chisholm Fire

The origin of the fire which destroyed Chisholm has been definitely learned. The holocaust started about four and one-half miles northwest of the town near the logging camp of Powers & Simpson, which closed its cutting last year. A spark from an engine not far from the camp fell in a clump of dry grass and although efforts were made by a man named BROWN to stamp out the flames, the wind fanned the blaze and soon it had assumed enormous proportions.

The engineer and fireman did not know the fire had been caused by their engine and it was not stopped. The cruiser, BROWN, happened along shortly afterward, but too late to check the small fire which was eating into the bush and attacking the forest between the camp and Chisholm.

The Duluth News Tribune, Duluth, MN 12 Sept 1908

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Real Origin of Chisholm Fire

Expert Foresters Declare Burst of Flames Came From North-west As Surprise.

(Range Bureau of the News Tribune.)
Hibbing, Oct., 6.-Investigations made during the past ten days by J.G. MCGEE, JOHN A. REDFERN and others seem to show that the true story of the wiping out of Chisholm by fire Sept. 5 has never been told.

Mr. REDFERN and Mr. MCGEE, both expert foresters, have traveled over the territory north of Chisholm several times in the past ten days and they declare that the fire which burned Chisholm was not the fire to the west of the town several days prior to the fatal Saturday, but a totally different fire which swept down upon Chisholm from the northwest, and of which they were totally unaware until it burst from the forest and seized upon the buildings from one end of the town to the other, leaving the people no alternative but to leave all behind and escape with their lives.

The old right of way of the Great Northern runs from Chisholm northwest about seven miles to JOE HAHN’S place, a well known stopping place on the Sturgeon Lake road from Hibbing. Investigations show that the fire began in the vicinity of HAHN’S place-perhaps a mile or two north and swept directly southeast. Mr. MCGEE declares that this territory was thick with small timber, brush and slashings, so thick in fact as to be almost impassible. Where this dense growth formerly existed the country is now swept clean as a floor. What few shoots of burned vegetation are left are bent far over to the southeast and show plainly that the fire came down upon them and passed over them from the northwest. So fierce was the fire that practically nothing was left in its path but the bare ground. The district swept by this fire is about four miles wide and nine miles long and is a straight path from the northwest to the southeast and terminating at Chisholm.

At 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, E.E. BERSIE, a homesteader living nine miles north of Hibbing, saw the fire crossing the county road. He says that it was roaring like a hurricane and was headed straight to the southeast fanned by a veritable gale and he thought at the time that at the rate the wall of flame was advancing it would race down upon Chisholm within an hour. As a matter of fact it reached Chisholm at 4:30 and the town was in ashes an hour later. Mr. BERSIE barely escaped from this fire with his life.

The Duluth News Tribune, Duluth, MN 7 Oct 1908