The Gunness Farm / April 28
The farmhouse burned before dawn on April 28, 1908. Each year on the anniversary, this site goes back to McClung Road: a new video from the farm at first light, the year's vote tally, and every family story that came in since the last one.
Next anniversary
April 28, 2027 · 118 years after the fire
Reconstructed from testimony at the Lamphere trial and the coroner's inquest.
Joe Maxson wakes to smoke. The hired man, sleeping in an upstairs room of the farmhouse, is woken by smoke. He pounds on Belle's door and gets no answer. He gets out through a window.
Neighbors arrive. The Clifford and Hutson families see the glow and come running. The house is already fully involved. Nobody can get in.
The house is gone. The frame structure burns to the cellar in about an hour. Only the chimney stands.
Four bodies. Searchers working the cellar find three children and an adult woman lying together where the bedroom floor collapsed. The woman has no head.
Lamphere arrested. Sheriff Smutzer picks up Ray Lamphere, the former hired man Belle had named as a threat the day before, at a neighbor's farm. He is charged with arson and four murders.
Asle Helgelien gets off the train. He has read his brother's letters. He wants to dig.
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