My mother, Linda Lilley, just lost everything she owned when the Camp House fire burned her home to the ground.

This is a devastating loss of a crucial piece of Brimson history. The original log building was built by the Neimi family in 1906, and moved closer to the road and finished in an arts and craft style in the late 20s and early 30s by Victor Juslin. Mom bought it in 1979, and she and her husband Greg had been rennovating it continually since then, including a full structural rebuild of the roof and adding an upstairs room. The barn, also a total loss, was originally for dairy cows, as mentioned in Irja Beckman's book on homesteading the Brimson area, Echos from the Past. Mom and greg were avid collectors of vintage art and antiques, as well as vintage miniature clocks. All was lost. Some of the last known paintings and scrapbooks of local artist Martin Tomila were also destroyed. The house and barn themselves were pieces of living history of the Finnish settlment of the area. Although grateful my Mom is safe, we are both mouning the loss of both personal and historical connections to the past, especially those of my recently departed stepfather, whose woodwork adorned the house inside and out.

Thanks to those who have helped so far. After seeing the house in person, I am absolutely devastated by the destruction. Its eerie and sad at the same time when you see details of what the fire burned. The fire was so hot glass flowed and melted like syrup, and fused to other things. I have found solidified opussles of moleten metal. There are a few pieces of pottery that lived throgh, but that is it.

The cleanup is immense. We will have to hire someone to sort and gather all the scrap metal from the barn roof, and begin the effort to clean up. It will likeley take a crew a goopd long time to get things cleaned and hauled off. There is also a large amount of salvage lohging that will need to be done to remove the trees that were killed but are still standing. Its going to take a long time to even get back to a clean slate.

My mother is the strongest person I have ever met....however, the coming weeks are going to be trying, as she is on a fixed income, and her strongest support (me - her only child) is on the West Coast and will have to bounce back and forth across the country to help deal with the house, and help my mom start over. These funds will be used for travel, clothes, furniture, other logistics, and anything else she needs to go forward.