Peshtigo fire

Yesterday I learned that the General Slocum disaster of 1904 was the second most deadly fire in U.S. history. The single most deadly one was the Peshtigo fire of October 8, 1871.

In fact, the Great Peshtigo Fire was the worst of its kind in North American history, but its story isn't as interesting as that of the General Slocum. The loggers at that time made it a common practice to start small fires in order to burn the dry forest debris. Massive wind that day fanned the flames and created a colossal fire out of the smaller ones that raged through 1 million acres in Wisconsin and upper Michigan, leaving 1,500 people dead.

As with the General Slocum, this disaster has been overshadowed by another fire incident. The Triangle Shirtwaist factory pushed the General Slocum catastrophe out of public consciousness, possibly because German-Americans died on the boat and Germans at the time were viewed in a different light. The Great Chicago Fire had actually happened on the same day as Peshtigo, but one reason Peshtigo got relegated is because people are still trying to figure out if Mrs. O'Leary's cow kicked the lantern over.