PHOTOS: While most will recall Oct. 8, 1871 as the day of Chicago’s Great Fire, that story stole the headlines from a blaze in Wisconsin that has been described as Hell on Earth.
On the very same night Mrs. O’Leary’s cow allegedly kicked over a lantern in Chicago, a firestorm tore through northeast Wisconsin, killing more than 1,200 people and consuming up to 1.5 million acres.
The Peshtigo Fire remains the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history, and yet, very few outside the state know it ever happened. Chicago got a myth. Peshtigo got a tragedy.
In 1871, slash-and-burn farming and railroad clearing were routine across Wisconsin’s forests. After a summer of drought, the land was a tinderbox.
As the Peshtigo Times noted in a 1921 retrospective, “Northern Wisconsin, as a rule, is not subject to drought. But the season of 1871 was an exception.”
That night, an eastward-moving cold front kicked up incredibly strong winds. Several small brush fires merged into one monstrous blaze creating a firestorm. Flames were estimated to have reached 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and were kept roaring with wind gusts of more than 100 mph reported.
