The Peshtigo Fire

October 8 marks the 155th anniversary of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871. But did you know that the Chicago Fire wasn’t the only fire that day? It wasn’t even the biggest fire that day.

The Great Chicago Fire started around 8:30pm on October 8, 1871. Roughly 20 minutes earlier, the Peshtigo Fire started in northern Wisconsin. While the Chicago Fire killed about 300 people and burned a total of 3.3 square miles (just over 2000 acres), the Peshtigo Fire burned 1.2 million acres and killed 1,500 to 2,500 people. The exact death toll is hard to pinpoint due to the extreme heat of the fire fully destroying some bodies, inaccurate population counts at the time, city records being destroyed in the fire, and the varying counts of bodies buried in mass graves immediately following the fire. Even at the lowest estimate, the Peshtigo Fire still holds the record as the deadliest wildfire in the world in recorded history. In. The. World. Ever.

Despite its size and the death toll, the Chicago Fire is by far more well-known than the Peshtigo Fire. That is partly due to the population density in Chicago. Many more people were displaced by the Chicago Fire than the Peshtigo Fire. Also, there were six major newspapers in Chicago at the time of the fire and only one regional paper in the Peshtigo area. Even in 1871, the Great Chicago Fire story went “viral.”

There were two other significant fires in Michigan that started on that same day, October 8, 1871. The first was referred to as the Great Michigan Fire, in the Holland and Manistee area. That fire started around 2:00pm that day and consumed 2.5 million acres, killing around 200 people. The second was the Port Huron Fire, burning about as much area as the Peshtigo Fire and killing at least 50 people.

So, why all these fires on the same day? We’ve all heard the story of Mrs. O’Leary’s cow causing the Chicago Fire. I’m wondering if that is true because of all these other fires.

A more likely explanation is that the entire area of the country was in the midst of a prolonged drought. Slash-and-burn clearing of land was heavily used at the time to allow for expanding population growth bringing the need for more housing and roads. It was also used to clear farmland and clear the way to extend railroads.

The rail line on the outskirts of Peshtigo had been extending a rail line for a few months prior to the fire, and the citizens of Peshtigo had grown used to the glow of fire on the horizon and ashes floating in the air in town. On October 8, a cold front moved into the area, with wind speeds of up to 110 mph. Some accounts say that a tornado was spawned in Peshtigo by that front, while others say it was simply that the winds drove the already-burning fires ahead of them and the fires got out of control.

I learned of the Peshtigo Fire in elementary school, and I vividly remember the story the teacher told of people jumping into the Peshtigo River to escape the flames, only to perish from drowning and hypothermia.

I discovered after I published Of the Embers, which covers the Peshtigo Fire in two of its chapters, that very few people had heard of the Peshtigo Fire. If you get a chance, there is a small museum in Peshtigo devoted to the fire that is worth the visit. It’s open seasonally, ending its season annually on October 8, the anniversary of the fire.