Baudette Fire of 1910

Baudette Fire
Location	Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota
Statistics
Date(s)	October 7, 1910
Burned area	300,000 acres (1,200 km2)
Cause	Drought, sparks from trains, small brush fires
Land use	Logging
Fatalities	29-42

The Baudette Fire, also known as the Spooner-Baudette Fire, was a large wildfire that burned 1,200 to 1,450 square kilometres (300,000 to 360,000 acres) in Lake of the Woods County, Minnesota, including nearly all of the twin towns of Spooner and Baudette on October 7, 1910. In addition to Baudette, the fire also burned the villages of Graceton, Pitt, Williams, and Cedar Spur. Damage was horrific yet less so in the communities of Zipple, Roosevelt, Swift and Warroad in the U.S. and Stratton, Pinewood, Rainy River, and Sprague across the river in Canada which also suffered losses. The Town of Rainy River lost its lumber mill, but saved many of the residents of Baudette and Spooner since the residential area was not affected, their American friends were welcomed into homes where they remained for a very long time as their homes had to be rebuilt, creating a strong bond between the two communities.

Lake Of The Woods County was known for its logging industry during the early 1900s. Similar to other forest fires, this disaster took place over dry, harvested land which was vulnerable to potential fire destruction. Homesteaders earned their money by cutting and selling their wood to various buyers. The main workforce employing the majority of the area was the logging industry. Several large sawmills were established early on at Rainy River, Baudette and Spooner on the bay of the Baudette river. Timber was floated down the tributaries of the Rainy River to the mills or hauled to the various railroad depots for shipment via rail. When the logging industry was at its peak, one could walk across the bay due to the large amount of logs covering the bay area. Most of the homesteads were still covered with timber. What fields there were, were small and used to grow enough grain for animal feed and for household use. This large tract of forest, broken up with small fields and slash filled cut-over areas was a textbook fuel arrangement for a large conflagration to develop.

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