At 110 feet long and 10,000 pounds, however, this impressive colossus is dwarfed by a 205-ft, 61,000-pound stick exhibited on the side of a building in a town on Vancouver Island.  But it was still worth a stop and provides an effective symbol for this hockey-obsessed hamlet.  Signs around town point the way to the "Big Stick."

Hinckley Fire Memorial

Near Carleton, we hopped onto I-35, the first interstate highway we've driven in ten days.  After experiencing the rush of unimpeded driving again for a while, we paused in the town of Hinckley (pop. 1,800) to search for a letterbox.  The box was planted as a memorial to more than 400 victims of the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894.  

A two-month drought coupled with high temperatures and careless lumbering practices led to ideal circumstances for a major conflagration on September 1 of that year.  An odd temperature inversion contributed to the conditions that enabled several scattered fires to unite into a firestorm that scorched more than 200,000 acres and killed as many as 800.  Temperatures exceeded 2,000 °F., fusing the wheels of rail cars to the tracks.  

The residents who escaped did so by climbing down into wells or ponds or catching a ride on the few overcrowded trains that were able to leave the town before it was destroyed.  One engineer on a train headed south was able to rescue almost 300 people by backing up his train for more than five miles to a lake where passengers were able to avoid the fire.

Finally we made it to our hotel in a Minneapolis suburb in the late afternoon and took time to plan our visit to the city tomorrow and post clues for five letterboxes we have planted on this trip.