Root Cellar Story - Pine County Genealogical Society

On Tuesday, September 4, Minnie Samuelson and John Derosier continued the wedding that had been interrupted by the fire. On that fateful Saturday Minnie, age seventeen, and John, age twenty-eight, their families and guests were assembled at the Samuelson home near Sandstone Junction for the wedding ceremony. When fire surrounded the house everyone scurried for shelter to the stone root cellar where milk was usually stored. As flames burned at the wooden door they used milk to quench the fire and pour over themselves. The house, belongings and the wedding gifts were destroyed, but everyone in the wedding party was saved.

The root cellar is still visible in a field east of Old Highway 61 about six miles north of Hinckley, MN. At the time of the fire it was near Skunk Lake, but that body of water is no longer there.