Estherville Fire Department

This is not a postcard but we felt it was such a nice old photograph that we needed to display it here. We really can't tell you anything about the truck or the history of the fire department but would certainly like to hear from anyone who can share information. If you have further information about it please send us e-mail and we will post it here.

We did take a bit of artistic license with this photograph and removed some scratches and dark spots as well as added a slight sepia tone. We also removed a little bit of a blurred spot near the face of the fireman on the back of the truck. We do not own the original of this photograph and can't tell you where it originated. We have printed this out as a 5 X 7 and the quality is acceptable enough for framing and display.

We are still looking for more details about this picture, but we were contacted by a member of the Estherville Volunteer Fire Department who tells us that this is a 1911 Willis Chain Drive fire engine. There are no records, or anyone left in the fire department, that can shed any light on the history of this truck or what happened to it. We want to thank Tom for sharing this information and would look forward to any fire engine experts to give us details on this model and make of fire truck.

A friend of the site has sent us a scan of an old fire department postcard for display here. We do not know anything more about this other than it is a fire truck from Estherville and that the date on the back of the card was 1912.

If you would like a full size scan of this card for your personal use please send e-mail and we will make it available to you. We do not honor requests for scans to be used in commercial ventures.

If you entered this page directly you can find more about our hometown of Estherville by clicking here and look for the hometown page link.