FORESTRY BOARD:
An Inventory of Its Fire Wardens' Reports and Maps at the Minnesota Historical Society
Government Records
OVERVIEW
| Creator: | Minnesota State Forestry Board. | |
| Title: | Fire Wardens' Reports and Maps. | |
| Dates: | 1895-1910. | |
| Language: | Materials in English. | |
| Abstract: | Township fire wardens' annual reports (1895-1896) and reports of fires (1896, 1905, 1908-1910) submitted to C. C. Andrews, Chief Fire Warden, 1895-1905, and Forestry Commissioner, 1905-1911, under the 1895 Forest Preservation Act [Minn. Laws 1895 c196]. | |
| Quantity: | 4.8 cubic feet (21 volumes and 14 folders in 5 boxes). | |
| Location: | See Detailed Description for shelf locations. |
SCOPE AND CONTENTS
While the annual reports compile information for the entire year, the fire reports detail individual fires. Together they provide documentation of the types, size, origination, and duration of fires in the state, methods used in fighting the fires, dry or dangerous weather, response of the public to forestry law, types and extent of trees in the state, especially white and Norway pine, number of lumber camps, amount of cleared forest land, and cost of supporting fire districts. The 1896 reports are not complete, but are a sample representation selected by Andrews.
There are also two sets of special reports (1895, 1919) used to gather information about the fire districts, the residents' acceptance or non-acceptance of forestry laws, fire dangers, timber types and extent, prescribed burning, and fire fighting costs, and a set of 1906-1910 fire district maps.
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Availability:
The collection is open for research use.
Preferred Citation:
[Indicate the cited item and/or series here]. Minnesota State Forestry Board. Fire Wardens' Reports and Maps. Minnesota Historical Society.
See the Chicago Manual of Style for additional examples.
Accession Information:
Accession numbers: [1753?]; [1784?]; [3639?]
Processing Information:
Re-Processed by: Cheri Thies, August 2000
Catalog ID number: 990017367030104294
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
| Box | |||||||||||
| 103.H.8.6F | 1 | Returns of chairmen, 1895. 2 volumes. | |||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically by county; within each county, in a rough order by township. Forms completed by township fire wardens and submitted to the Chief Fire Warden. Information that may be found in the forms includes the number of warning placards posted and locations, number of fire districts, names and residences of supervisors, type of timber and terrain in the township, probable fire dangers, and number of able bodied males in the township. | |||||||||||
| Fire wardens' annual reports, 1895. 6 volumes: | |||||||||||
| Arranged alphabetically by county; within each county, in a rough order by township. Forms completed by township fire wardens and submitted to the Chief Fire Warden. Information that may be found in the forms includes town, range, county, post office, date and place of any forest or prairie fires, acreage burned and amount of damage, how originated, how extinguished, how many involved in extinguishing, any prosecutions under the Forest Preservation Act, dry or dangerous weather, number of fires in 1894, placement of warning placards and response from residents, types of trees in area and number, especially white and Norway pines, number of lumber camps, type of soil, and amount of claim presented for services as fire warden. | |||||||||||
| Volume 1, Aitkin-Clay. | |||||||||||
| Volume 2, Clay-Itasca. | |||||||||||
| Volume 3, Jackson-Mille Lacs. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 103.H.8.7B | 2 | Volume 4, Morrison-Pipestone. | |||||||||
| Volume 5, Polk-Swift. | |||||||||||
| Volume 6, Swift–Yellow Medicine. | |||||||||||
| Fire wardens' annual reports, 1896. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Sample representation of the reports, selected by C. C. Andrews; organized alphabetically by county. Additional information to that listed for the 1895 forms includes questions about white pine planting bounties, acres of cleared forest, number of new settlers, and miles of passable natural or artificial wagon road. | |||||||||||
| Fire wardens' reports of fires, 1896. 1 volume. | |||||||||||
| Sample representation of the reports, selected by C. C. Andrews; organized alphabetically by county. Information that may be found in the forms includes type of fire, location, date and time, size and what type of area burned—meadow, brush, field, prairie, heavy or light timber, cause, length of time to extinguish, method used to extinguish, weather, and witnesses. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 103.H.8.8F | 3 | Fire wardens' districts maps, 1906-1910. 4 folders: | |||||||||
| Organized in a rough chronological order. Blank township maps showing 36 sections, filled in with county, township name, and hand drawn fire district boundaries. Signed by the fire warden. | |||||||||||
| Undated, 1906, 1908. | |||||||||||
| January, May-October 1909. | |||||||||||
| February-April 1910. | |||||||||||
| May-October 1910. | |||||||||||
| Fire wardens' reports of fires, June-July 1905, 1908-1910. 10 folders: | |||||||||||
| Organized chronologically. Forms completed by township fire wardens and submitted to the Chief Fire Warden. Information that may be found in the forms includes type of fire, location, date and time, size and what type of area burned—meadow, brush, field, prairie, heavy or light timber, cause, length of time to extinguish, method used to extinguish, weather, and witnesses. | |||||||||||
| June-July 1905, April 6-21, 1908. | |||||||||||
| April 22-30 1908. | |||||||||||
| May 1908. | |||||||||||
| June-September 1908. | |||||||||||
| October-December 1908. | |||||||||||
| January-May 1909. | |||||||||||
| June 1909. | |||||||||||
| July 1909. | |||||||||||
| August-September 1909. | |||||||||||
| October 1909-February, December 1910. | |||||||||||
| Questionnaires/Fire wardens' reports of fires, 1910. 2 volumes. | |||||||||||
| The two volumes in this box and the nine in the following two boxes contain a combination of a completed questionnaire sent from the Chief Fire Warden’s office to the township fire wardens on September 20, 1910 and fire wardens’ reports for fires for 1910. The former requests the fire warden’s opinions on division of the townships into fire warden districts, burning of meadows and brush by the landowners, how to best explain and reinforce forestry law, payment of firefighters, township sharing the cost of fire fighting, prohibition of burning from April through October, and slash burning. Many of the fire reports, which are the same as those described for 1905, 1908-1910, are not on the official forms but were submitted in letter form that include requests for more blank forms. These forms sometimes appear to be in chronological and/or alphabetical form within some of the individual volumes, but overall are in no easily discernible arrangement. Dates and locations (counties) are found scattered all throughout the eleven volumes. | |||||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 103.H.8.9B | 4 | Questionnaires/Fire wardens’ reports of fires, 1910. 4 volumes. | |||||||||
| Box | |||||||||||
| 103.H.8.10F | 5 | Questionnaires/Fire wardens' reports of fires, 1910. 5 volumes. | |||||||||
RELATED MATERIAL
CATALOG HEADINGS
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the catalog of the Minnesota Historical Society. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons or places should search the catalog using these headings.
- Topics:
- Clearcutting -- Minnesota.
- Fire protection districts -- Minnesota -- Maps.
- Fire wardens -- Minnesota.
- Fire weather -- Minnesota.
- Forest fires -- Minnesota -- Protection and control.
- Forest management -- Minnesota -- Citizen participation.
- Forestry law and legislation -- Minnesota.
- Ground cover fires -- Minnesota -- Protection and control.
- Lumber camps -- Minnesota.
- Prescribed burning -- Minnesota.
- Red pine -- Minnesota.
- White pine -- Minnesota.
- Persons:
- Andrews, C. C. (Christopher Columbus), 1829-1922.
- Document Types:
- Maps -- Minnesota.
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