Earth_Magazine_October_2017

WISCONSIN

Green

Bay

Appleton

Oshkosh

MICHIGAN

WISCONSIN

Waupaca

Plover

Knowlton

Wausau

Jenny

Fond du Lac

Manitowoc

Kewaunee

Ahnapee

Sturgeon Bay

N. London

Menominee

Menekaunee

Birch

Creek

Williamsonville

Sugar Bush

Oconto

Shawano

Marinette

Peshtigo River

Escanaba

Peshtigo

Peshtigo

Lower Village

Baileys

Harbor

Green Bay

Lake Michigan

Sheboygan

MAP OF THE BURNT DISTRICT

OF WISCONSIN

1871

KEY

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death toll were heaviest

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IOWA

INDIANA

MINN.

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Sarah Derouin

O

n Oct. 8, 1871, the Great Chi-

cago Fire burned through

900 hectares of the city, kill-

ing as many as 300 people and

leaving another 100,000 homeless. More

than 17,400 buildings were destroyed

and financial losses totaled more than

$200 million at the time (equivalent to

$3.7 billion in 2016 dollars).

The ruin brought by the fire to the pop-

ulous city quickly became national news,

bringing the Chicago fire legendary status

in local and U.S. history. But that same day,

another, even more devastating fire ripped

through the Midwest, 400 kilometers north

of Chicago around the lumber town of

Peshtigo, Wis. The wildfire burned nearly

500,000 hectares of land and killed as many

as 2,500 people — more than any other fire

in U.S. history. Yet, most Americans have

never heard of it.

The Peshtigo and Chicago fires were

not the only blazes in the Midwest that

week. Fires also broke out in the Mich-

igan towns of Holland and Manistee,

prompting some to ask: Were the fires a

coincidence, the result of months of dry

weather? Or was there something cosmic

to blame for all four fires?

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In the 1870s, the upper Midwest,

sometimes called the Northwoods, was

a boon for the lumber industry. Rapidly

growing cities like Chicago and Milwau-

kee sent lumbermen north to provide

timber for building supplies. Rail lines

and harbors in Lake Michigan carried

wood and manufactured products like

shipping boxes to a growing nation. By

1870, the value of lumber produced from

Wisconsin forests was valued at $15 mil-

lion ($277 million today).

The city of Peshtigo is located on

the banks of the Peshtigo River, about

11 kilometers inland from Green Bay, an

arm of Lake Michigan. The 150-kilome-

ter-long river has plenty of rapids along

its length — a plus for transporting large

amounts of lumber from the Northwoods

downstream to Peshtigo with the riv-

er’s current.

During the Quaternary, much of

Wisconsin was covered numerous times

by the Laurentide Ice Sheet, with the last

glacial ice covering the area between

about 25,000 and 10,000 years ago — a

period referred to as the Wisconsinan

Glaciation. When the ice retreated

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