On This Day in 1871: The Great Midwest Wildfires of 1871

From October 8 to October 10, 1871, large fires devastated the Midwest, claiming thousands of lives and millions of acres of land.

These wildfires tore through Michigan, Wisconsin and Illinois. The most famous of the fires struck Chicago (known as the Great Chicago Fire), where the blaze claimed over 300 lives and destroyed around 17,000 buildings.

The fire's spread was aided by the primary material in Chicago's buildings: wood. More than two-thirds of structures in Chicago were made entirely of wood, with highly flammable tar or shingle roofs to boot. Chicago's fire department only had 185 firefighters to protect the entire city, and on top of that, an error by the watchman sent the firefighters to the wrong place, allowing the fires to grow. 

A major contributing factor to the spread was a phenomenon known as a fire whirl. When hot air from the fire mixes with cooler air above, it can spin and create a vortex similar to that of a tornado. The fire whirl helped spread the blaze across the river, destroying the city's waterworks and drying up the water mains, leaving the city helpless.

For many years, the fire was blamed on a cow that supposedly knocked over a latern in a barn on 137 DeKoven Street, a story that a reporter later admitted to fabricating but continues to linger in popular culture as the origin of the blaze.

The city of Singapore, Mich., provided a large amount of lumber to rebuild Chicago. The area was so heavily deforested that winds and sand from Lake Michigan quickly eroded the town, burying it beneath sand in just four years. 

In Michigan, large fires significantly damaged Holland, Port Huron and Manistee, Mich. Death tolls, while largely unknown, were estimated to surpass 500 lives. Logging had quickly grown into a major industry for Michigan in the 50 years prior to 1871, with several sawmills in operation across the state by the time the fire came to pass. Logging debris (also known as "slash"), branches, bark and unused wood from the sawmills provided the fuel needed to burn more than 3,900 square miles of the state.

Of the fires comprising this tragic event, the most devastating was the Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin. To this day, it remains the deadliest fire in American history.

The blaze reached Peshtigo on Sunday, October 8th. By the time it petered out, it had consumed around 1.5 million acres of land and an estimated 1,200 to 2,400 lives. In the entire town of Peshtigo, only one building managed to survive the flames.

Fort Embarrass, 60 miles southwest of Peshtigo, kept detailed weather records at the time. Several entries in the days preceding the Peshtigo Fire mention the observation of smaller fires, with warm temperatures and dense smoke also preceding the massive blaze. A surface weather map from October 8th indicates that a robust low-pressure system over the central Plains, which would have produced strong southwesterly winds. The combination of pre-existing fires, warm temperatures, powerful winds and prolonged drought likely led to the rapid spreading of the blaze.

The Great Midwest fires served as an eye-opener to many about responsible land management, particularly around the removal of timber from cleared land. In the past 150 years, wildfire management has expanded. Wildfires will always occur and continue to claim lives and property, but improvements in technology, awareness, weather information and land management helps to prevent an event at the scale of the Great Midwest fires of 1871 from happening again.

Credit: NWS Green Bay
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