The Great Hinckley Fire
                  On September 1, 1894, a devastating forest fire swept through the small lumber
                  town of Hinckley, Minnesota. James and Cora Jordan survived this great
                  disaster with their 6 children. Over 418 people perished in the fire which with
                  incredible speed, left 480 square miles of forests and countryside a charred
                  wasteland. After fleeing to the train bound for Duluth, James helped Cora and
                  the children save their lives. He stayed back, helping other women and children
                  to the train and then found safety in a bend of the Grindstone River. Cora's
                  father, John Roscoe Stanchfield, her stepmother, Marticia, and siblings also
                  were saved by getting into the river at a different location.

                  John Stanchfield was a carpenter, and he helped rebuild the town of Hinckley
                  after the fire. In the Hinckley Fire victims cemetery, a gazebo still stands that was
                  build by John over 100 years ago. 

                  If you get to Hinckley, don't just stop at the Casino. Visit the Hinckley Fire
                  Museum. Among all the interesting things you will see at the exhibit, you will
                  also find the old green carpetbag photo album that belonged to James and
                  Cora. It was one of the few, if not only, items that were saved along with the
                  family on that tragic day.

                  A very good book to read on the Great Hinckley Fire is, "From the Ashes, The
                  Story of the Hinckley Fire of 1894," by Grace Stageberg Swenson. The book is
                  generously sprinkled with old and new photographs with Swenson's
                  'you-are-there' style which chronicles the tragedy and aftermath of Minnesota's
                  worst fire.