A hundred and fifty two years ago, Mrs. O’Leary’s cow is blamed for starting the Great Chicago Fire. But farther north that same day, another cyclone-like firestorm raged as it destroyed seventeen towns and killed an estimate of 1,500 to 2,500 people, making it the deadliest fire in US history. Besides destroying the towns, over 2 billion trees and 2,400 square miles were burned in the Peshtigo fire,
This historical marker is near the mass grave of 350 victims of the fire, many too charred to identify or no family left alive to identify them.
A hundred and fifty years ago, the deadliest wildfire in recorded history occurred in northeastern Wisconsin with an estimated deaths between 1,500 and 2,500. The Peshtigo fire consumed 2 billion trees and burned 1.2 million acres as the flames reached 200 feet in the air and 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The mass grave of nearly 350 people was established because it was impossible to identify so many people.
Some people went to the river in an attempt to escape the flames, like James Mellen and his two younger brothers. For four hours he tried to keep his brothers safe from the heat and flames by wetting their hair and dunking them under water. When James brought his family to shore, he found that both his brothers had died of hypothermia.
The Peshtigo fire, the deadliest wildfire recorded, has been largely forgotten because the famous Great Chicago Fire happened the same day which was publicized more but only killed around 300.
The Great Chicago Fire, burned from October 8 to October 10, 1871, and destroyed thousands of buildings, killed an estimated 300 people but a more deadly fire also happened on that October 8 further north in Wisconsin. The town of Peshtigo was wiped out by a firestorm with a wall of flames a mile high and five miles wide traveling at 100 miles per hours which was hot enough to turn sand into glass. With over 1,875 square miles consumed by the fire that caused the most deaths by fire in United States history, with estimated deaths of around 1,500 people, possibly as many as 2,500. An accurate death toll has never been determined because local records were destroyed in the fire.
Very little survived the fire, but Father Pernin grabbed the tabernacle from St. Mary’s Church and pushed the wagon into the river as he spent six hours in the water. The next day the priest didn’t know what became of the tabernacle until a parishioner, who also survived, told him to follow him.
“I hurried with him to that part of the river into which I had pushed as far as possible my wagon containing the wooden tabernacle,” Father Pernin wrote. “This wagon had been blown over on its side by the storm; whilst the tabernacle itself had been caught up by the wind and cast on one of the logs floating on the water. Everything in the immediate vicinity of this spot had been blackened or charred by the flames; logs, trunks, boxes, nothing had escaped, yet, strange to say, there rose the tabernacle, intact in its snowy whiteness, presenting a wonderful contrast to the grimy blackness of the surrounding objects.” Father Pernin left the tabernacle where it had been found for two days, “so as to give all an opportunity of seeing it . . . The Catholics generally regarded the fact as a miracle, and it was spoken of near and far, attracting great attention.”
