Chicago vs. Peshtigo

My family and I are going to Chicago for the Fourth of July weekend.  I love Chicago.  I personally think it is the best large city in America.  It's clean, there are so many different sights to see, the museums are great, Lake Michigan is fantastic, the festivals are unique, and the layout makes the city easy to get around.  Now if we could just get it out of Democratic control before it is ruined.  But that is a blog for a different time.

Amongst the history of gangsters, and parades, and the culture is the story of the Great Chicago Fire.  You've probably heard the story.  The fires supposedly started with Mrs. O'Leary's cow tipping over a lantern.  The fire raged throughout the entire city for nearly three days, killing 250 people, destroying 18,000 buildings, and leaving 100,000 people homeless.  Damage was estimated at $200,000 million.  A unimaginable amount for 1871.

But it wasn't the deadliest fire in U.S. history.

The Great Peshtigo Fire was the deadliest in U.S. history.  The fire killed nearly 1000 people in and around the town.  A devastating number of people considering that the town was a small little lumber town in northern Wisconsin. This howling fire jumped from tree to tree so quickly that it was impossible to run away from, and it completely incinerated the entire town and other nearby towns that were in it's path.

So, why haven't you ever heard of the Great Peshtigo Fire of northern Wisconsin?  Well, it took place 250 miles north of the Great Chicago Fire on October 8, 1871.... the same very night of the Chicago fire.