Book portrays area’s 1938 fire disaster

Eighteen people lost their lives. Many people lost their homes and possessions and their every means of making a living.

It was at the end of a very dry and hot summer when the wild fires started and with furious speed, swept through acres of forest and farmlands in the Rainy River District, southeastern Manitoba and several counties in northern Minnesota.

“We were not worried at dinner time.” Linda Adams, of Dance Township in Ontario, spoke aloud those very words on a national relief appeal broadcast from Winnipeg after she and many others lost their homes to the great fires of (Canadian) Thanksgiving Day, 1938.

She spoke for many of the people who lived in the Rainy River, Rainy Lake and Lake of the Woods areas during early October of that year. The statement is also the name of a new book of local interest, and its authors Harl and Kay Dalstrom will be signing “We Were Not Worried At Dinner Time” at 7 p.m. Saturday at the Ranier Community Building. The event is hosted by Koochiching County Museums.

As the 2009 fire season ends, the Rainy River District Women's Institutes Museum, which published the book, introduces the latest book on those devastating fires in 1938. The museum has stated that in addition to providing a riveting account of the Dance Township fire, the book also places the disaster in the larger context of the history of the Rainy River District and the Manitoba, Ontario and Minnesota borderland.

Author Harl A. Dalstrom is a history professor retired from the University of Nebraska in Omaha. Kay Calame Dalstrom, also retired, was instructor of foreign languages at the same university. Together, and with others, they have written numerous history books.

The couple makes their home in Omaha but both are long-time summer residents of Longbow Lake, Ont., just east of Kenora.

One of their neighbors at Longbow was the late Mary Austin who grew up near Emo in the 1920s and 30s. Austin enjoyed talking about the old days in the Rainy River area and Emo. It was through her that they heard about the fire in Dance Township.

“I thought that the stories of the tragedy in Dance and the other fires might tell us something about the way of life of the area's people, many of whom were struggling to make a living in a harsh environment during the Depression,” said Harl.

The Dalstrom book came off the press in September 2009. Although the couple’s summer place is closed up for the winter, Harl and Kay are returning to the area specifically to attend several local events planned, including in Ranier, to launch their book.

Research for the book began in 2004 and initially, newspapers were the Dalstroms’ main sources of information. They said they received invaluable assistance from museums in the area — including Koochiching County Museums of International Falls.

If you go:
WHAT: Book signing of “We Were Not Worried at Dinner Time” by Harl and Kay Dalstrom
WHEN & WHERE: 7 p.m. Saturday • Ranier Community Building, hosted by Koochiching County Museums
The book is about the 1938 early autumn fire disaster that killed several area people and took the livelihoods of many others.