Despite the difference in nationalities and the divide of the river, Rainy River and Baudette have been successful partners over many years.
Baudette was initially settled in 1891, according to the Lake of the Woods Historical Society, but really took off a decade later when the CN Railroad reached Lake of the Woods County.
At that time the chief industry on both sides of the border was logging and many mills filled both sides of the border. Fishing on the Rainy and Baudette Rivers and Lake of the Woods was also a popular industry.
One of the early events to cement the relationship between the two municipalities was the Great Fire of 1910.
In the book Rainy River: Our Town, Our Lives Marg Thompson shares the story of the fire as recounted by Mrs. Oliver Kellogg in the Baudette Region.
“In late September there were fires west of Baudette, by October 4, (the fires) reached Graceton burning the town and many settlers’ homes about the countryside. The entire country between Baudette and Graceton was a furnace of flames being driven back and forth by the shifting winds…”
In an article titled “The Town’s History” printed in the 1979 75th anniversary edition of the Rainy River Record and reprinted in the 1994 90th anniversary the incident of the fire is described as follows:
On the evening of Friday, October 7, 1910, a roaring cyclone of flame tore into the frontier lumbering towns of Baudette and Spooner and exploded into a holocaust that consumed everything in its path.
By 7 p.m. people were beginning to gather at the train depot and a message was wired to Rainy River to have relief trains ready if necessary. Half an hour later, watchers perched on top of a building opposite the depot cried, “It’s coming. Quick, give the fire alarm.”
The whistle sounded and the people came. The sick in night clothing, children carried dolls or pets and adults, a cherished possession or two. There was some panic when only one coach arrived. Oil tanks lay not far from the depot. Then again, the track was on fire and burning embers had reached the Canadian side.
Soon another train of boxcars arrived from Rainy River and took many to safety. Others elected to stay in Baudette and sought shelter in boats on the storm lashed waves of the river.
At the last possible minute the town of Rainy River was saved by a change in the wind. The Rat Portage Lumber Company was destroyed and all that remains of the pine reserves in the area is the local park called “The Pines”.
Looters came in the wake of the fire even before the embers stopped smoking. Finding little left to loot on the Minnesota border, they crossed the river into Rainy River. The men of the town quickly became organized to patrol the town. One patrolman was found shot in the back behind the jewelry store. His murderer was never found.
Another victim of the fire on the Canadian side was a baby, thought to have suffocated in the smoke.
Many Baudette people found shelter in Rainy River homes in days following the fire and that probably accounts for the closeness of the two towns.”
In 2005 Bell made a move that made residents feel a bit further apart when Bell decided it would save money by removing the American pages from the local phone book.
“Don’t throw out your old phone book if you want to be able to look up a number from Baudette,” Ken Johnston wrote in The Record. “Bell Canada has decided to try and pinch some pennies and cut the pages out of its new directory.”
There are times that the proximity of the two towns has resulted in some humorous occurrences.
In 2010 a man was arrested for running the border on foot only to manage to escape from custody. As Johnston’s Oct. 26, 2010 article says he “jumped through a window and attempted to cross into the U.S. With only handcuffs on.”
While both towns have been through ups and downs over their century-plus of existence, looking back over the years of Rainy River Record articles in our archives it’s easy to see that
