Environment | Page 75

City Hall after the storm

Up close detail of the damage done to the City Hall, 1904. In the center can be seen the rows of chairs dropped with the second story which remained standing in their rows.

Frank Wostrel's hardware store, left side of the image, where the first floor exploded during the cyclone, dropping the second level to the ground, 1904. Part of the first floor walls can be seen just to the left of the building.

Sherman House Hotel

The Sherman House Hotel after the storm, 1904. It is the building in the center, next to the large tree. The photo shows the entire front of the building laying in the street in the foreground. Witness accounts say nothing inside the building was moved.

Sherman House Hotel

Sherman House, Joseph and Albert Miller, Prop. Waconia, Minnesota, c.1890s.

Waconia Cyclone, August 20, 1904

On August 20, 1904, a large cyclone hit the City of Waconia, changing the face of the city forever.

Alvin C. Rose "tree claim," Deuel County, South Dakota.

Estelline, Dakota Territory. Members of the Andrew F. Rose family gatherered on the Alvin C. Rose farm, c.1880s.

A tree claim in Lyon County

A tree claim in Lyon County, c.1900.

Timber Culture Act, 1873

When Congress enacted the Timber Culture Act of 1873, many hoped that giving settler-colonists deeds to public lands in return for growing trees would reshape the environment of the West. However, legal loopholes meant that most of the tree claims filed under the Timber Culture Act were never planted with trees. Fraudulent claims and wild speculation meant that the act was repealed less than twenty years after it was enacted.