A fire in Isanti County, Minnesota, on Friday destroyed church records, school yearbooks, family histories, wartime scrapbooks, cemetery records, plat maps from the 1800s, military uniforms, even sewing machines. Many of the treasures that were lost were one-of-a-kind items with no copies and no backups.
Kathy McCully, the society's executive director, estimated that 70 percent of the building's archives and artifacts collection was destroyed, either by flames or the water used to put them out.
The fire was one of several that investigators from the Isanti County Sheriff's Office and the state fire marshal's office believe were set by arsonists in the Cambridge area early Friday. A $2,500 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.
Details may be found at http://goo.gl/FGpgg.
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