Peggy Derrick
Catalog Number: 1945.020.01
The Nott steam pumper fire engine, officially named the La Crosse, was purchased in 1905 for use at Station No. 1 at 414 State St. It cost the substantial sum of $5,000.
The La Crosse was pulled by two large horses, and it was capable of pumping 1,000 gallons each minute. Steam from the engine’s boiler provided the pressure to pump water from cisterns, or hydrants, into the fire hoses. Because the pumper had to be ready at all times, the boiler was kept warm by a special heater in the floor of the fire station while it was parked. Once at the fire, the boiler would be stoked with coal brought by a utility wagon.
Fire horses were trained to respond to fire alarms by dashing to their place in front of the wagon or steamer. An 1890 newspaper article described how the twice-daily event would draw a crowd of spectators to see the horses respond to the sound of a gong by rushing out of their stalls and running to their place in front of the fire trucks to be hitched.
With specially trained horses and quick-fastening harnesses, a fire alarm box at the corner of Third and Cass streets (six blocks away) could be answered by the State Street station in just 90 seconds.
The Nott Fire Engine Co. of Minneapolis supplied many Midwestern states with steam pumpers in the first decade of the 20th century. The largest manufacturer in the game, the International Fire Engine Co. of New York, made no secret of its intention to become a monopoly. Nott played David to the monopoly’s Goliath and survived, largely because of patronage from cities like La Crosse.
But steam pumper engines were all but obsolete by the 1920s thanks to gasoline-powered engines. In 1931, the fire chief requested that the Nott steam pumper be disposed of because it was obsolete. It was eventually transferred to the La Crosse Historical Society in 1945.
For many years it was driven in parades, and the last time the steam boiler was fired up was 1964, during Oktoberfest. Records show that “two dandy draft horses” pulled it in the 1962 Maple Leaf Parade, for example, but only after Robert A. Farnam, then-president of the La Crosse County Historical Society, gave it a “full-fledged test” by firing up the boiler.
This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on September 24, 2016.
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