Peshtigo Fire

October 8, 1871 – Nestled in the woods of northeastern Wisconsin is a small lumber town named Peshtigo, and on this night it suffered through one of the strangest and most devastating firestorms in American history.

Surrounded by sawmills, logging camps and piles of dry wood debris, Peshtigo was a literally a tinder box waiting to ignite when a strong cold front came sweeping through the Midwest. Unusually high winds pummeled the region and something eventually caused a spark.

The definitive source of the ignition has been debated ever since, and there are many competing theories. Maybe it was burning trash heap that blew out of control. It could’ve been a cinder flying out of a smokestack or the brakes of a train. One of the more interesting suggestions is that a comet broke up into flaming meteors.

Whatever the origin, the fire spread quickly. Witnesses described a tornado of fire that hurled flaming debris in every direction. The heat was so intense that some sandy surfaces turned to glass.

The inferno would go on to scorch and destroy 1.2 million acres across Wisconsin and Michigan. A majority of Peshtigo’s buildings and residents were reduced to ash. The death toll is estimated at between 1,200 and 2,500 people, but those numbers might be conservative considering that all the town’s records were lost in the catastrophe.

Adding insult to injury, the news and reporting on the Peshtigo fire was overshadowed by the much smaller and less deadly Chicago fire that occurred on the same day.