Peshtigo Wildfire, Peshitgo WI (1871)

Peshtigo Wildfire, Peshitgo WI (1871)

While many people have heard of the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, few people are aware that a second fire was taking place at the same time just a few hundred miles away in upstate Wisconsin, and that this fire would be responsible for more deaths by fire than any other in U.S. history. How many would die in a fire that was to scorch an area more than twice the size of the state of Rhode Island and lay waste to twelve communities will probably never be known exactly, largely due to the remoteness of the area and the largely rural population, but some estimates put the number as high as 2,500. Hardest hit was the little town of Peshtigo, most of whose population of 1,700 died in the flames—with many of their bodies never recovered. (Many of the survivors escaped the flames by immersing themselves in the Peshtigo River, wells, or other nearby bodies of water, though even then many drowned or succumbed to hypothermia in the frigid waters.) How bad was it? Surviving witnesses reported that the firestorm generated a tornado that threw rail cars hundreds of feet and flung entire houses into the air. Makes Mrs. O’Leary’s cow look tame by comparison.