Around 300 people died in the Chicago fire while 800 died just in the city of peshtigo itself, 1,200-2,400 total... property values exceed the value of life when it comes to headlines unfortunately.
The great Chicago fire was caused accidentally, tho the fire in peschtigo was caused by a forest fire probably a lightning strike or embers from a steam locomotive in the woods, who knows. Very odd on the same day though
Ive always wondered, how these 2 huge fires on the same day and not that far apart are treated so differently. Every1 seems to know about the Great Fire of Chicago, there are books, docs etc about it everywhere. While the Peshtigo Fire seems all but forgotten, u have to go looking for info, if u even know to look, which is only thanks to channels such as this.
In addition to the flames, the fires surrounding Peshtigo burned the white pines so ferociously that the oxygen was stripped from the air quicker than volatile gases could combust. This notably resulted in glowing "bubbles" of atmosphere high above their flashpoint that were seen descending onto buildings and trees which, on contact, exploded into flame. The Peshtigo Fire was in all ways an utterly unprecedented experience for survivors and its victims.
So I would think this forest of white pine you spoke of had still been original old-growth back then Compared to state of Wisconsin's more recent fires containing replanted softwood pines for the paper and lumber industry.
@@CONCERTMANchicago While you are correct about it being largely old-growth before the fire, the fact is that White Pine is still White Pine, and all conifers are "soft woods". Of them, Tabletop Pine (maybe a colloquial term) is one of the harder physically... though Yellow Pine and Redwood are also fairly durable as Pine goes... All your "hardwood" lumber comes from broad-leafed or "deciduous" trees... like Oak, Maple, or Cherry... and the like. Honest, I'm not trying to bust your balls. A LOT of folks just don't know the technical details of the difference. It's easy for them to get scammed trying to buy enough lumber for a repair or a remodel if they try a DIY project. I hate that... and since I grew up around Carpentry and Woodwork and even "Old World Artisanal Woodcraft" I like to try (at least) and help against that.
Thank you for covering this tragedy. I grew up in Wisconsin and people in here know about the Peshtigo fire but not many outside of the state. The estimate of 1700 is considered low because many of the smaller surrounding towns were completely burned. With no one left alive and no paper records remaining to say who they were, bodies were put in mass graves. There is a museum dedicated to the fire.
Paul Harvey did a piece on it on his nationally syndicated "The Rest of the Story" radio show some time in the eighties, so you can likely find a lot more older people who know about it than younger.
Many disasters have uncounted people due to destroyed records and other records being discounted or incorrect by local authorities trying cover up the scale of the disaster. One of my family members was involved in the infamous Saint Francis Dam disaster. His grandfather (my distant cousin was about 10 years old at the time) told local authorities that the ranch had over a dozen local workers and their families (another 20 people) at the time (they were raising cattle, pigs, and chickens in the San Francisquito area) when the Dam collapsed. When he (my cousin) came back years later (for pilot training in WWII) he found that they had not listed everyone, but the recovered body of one worker (which his grandfather had identified). That means about at least two dozen people were never counted in the final casualty list (they were migrant workers, so the local authorities didn't really care or were trying to lower their final count). He actually knew the names as his dad remembered the workers and their families (his dad carried a notebook to the day he died with all the people from the ranch who died that night). He (my cousin) tried to add names to the official casualties list and the local authorities told him that the official list was closed out in 1929 and couldn't have names added to it unless the bodies were found.
@MARK S Sorry that no one would record their names. That is tragic. Makes you wonder how many family members wondered but never knew the truth. BTW Ask A Mortician has a great video on the Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
@@Darkkfated My dad's family lives in western WI near the boarder to MN. One summer when I was a kid we were up there and took a trip over to Lake Superior. To this day I don't think I've experienced water colder than swimming in Superior even in the height of summer. That lake makes the rivers up there feel almost warm by comparison.
@@jackimhoff6767 editing with high end software is an art form bro, the timings... transitions... getting all those clips merged Not to mention all the shit he has collected to use that did not make the cut You know like the BBC has entire rooms of people for that shit!? ... and that's just the edit room
I'm a cheesehead and we learned about this in elementary school. And the teacher also made sure to warn us that nobody from any other state would have the slightest idea what we were talking about. Such a horrible event to be all but forgotten.
@@fraserwood2600 it's a familiar term for a person from Wisconsin (of course cheese is one of our specialties), especially if they are a fan of the local football team. It used to be a derogatory nickname but people decided we liked it and now you'll see people wearing giant cheese-shaped hats at games!
I've been asking channels to cover this for years! I live not far from Peshtigo and was always shocked with how unknown this disaster is. Literally the deadliest fire in recorded US history and hardly anyone knows about it. So thank you for covering it.
I read about this fire a few years ago and I'm from the UK, although I couldn't remember the name of the place. When this popped up I knew exactly what it was and glad it's been covered on a large channel like this in recognition of what happened. It is a truly horrifying event.
Might want to look into Randall Carlson and his work on this subject. He has about 10 hours just on the Peshtigo, Brushy creek, and Manistee fire. The channel is called Osmographia I believe.
So sad for all these people who went through this. Must have been horrifying to be in the middle of the river and still catch fire. Thank God for all those who came to their aid and sent supplies.
You don't know how lucky we are living in the "modern" world. The simplest thing today is called global warming disaster. But almost no one is killed by our natural world. That includes stormy weather which is not man made!
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae this comment comes off as very ignorant. People die from famine and flooding and tornadoes and tropical storms even today. 37,000 people have died from just one earthquake this month. There has been a famine going on in north east Africa for a long time, people doing of starvation. You may not personally suffer from natural disasters wherever you live, but millions are displaced or killed by natural forces every year.
@@mchjsosde 37000 people is nothing on the large scale. We are 8 billion people! If you go back 100 years, the amount of dead from natural disasters was enormous. Today it's in per mille. It's not ignorance it's just callousness. Starvation is a natural thing, when there are to many animals in one place and the prey and harvest isn't enough, nature compensate by killing of the animals. Sure the human animal is smart and has learned to overcome nature in many places. But the fact still is that not many people die from natural disasters today.
I think it was reported that the fire burned even the roots of the trees that were down in the ground. This fire is horrifying, worse than the one in Chicago, and yet the Chicago fire is the one everyone is taught about in school. I can't imagine the fear and incredible stress the people in the town underwent, and what trauma they must have had all their lives afterwards.
Having taken place on the same day as the Great Chicago fire, it's obvious how this tragedy is much less well known, so thank you for featuring this on your channel
In Wisconsin we all are taught about both. There's no hard feelings, only kinda sadness and awe at how quickly life can be taken. I feel bad for Chicago too. That was a bad day.
Thank you for doing my suggestion. As someone from the area, it is one of the most surreal memories of going to the Peshtigo Fire Museum as a kid and hearing this story. I did not know they studied the Fire for fire bombing in WW2. Thanks again.
There must of been a few of us asking. I had mentioned this fire when he did the Chigago fire video. I am so glad Peshtigo is getting told more widely.
My dad's entire side of the family is from the next town south, Oconto. I have heard many stories of the Great Peshtigo fire growing up and it is very cool that it was featured. A little known fact of the fire is that the flames were so large that the fire actually jumped the 13 miles across Green Bay and the Door peninsula caught fire that same night!
The fire did not jump the bay. To do so it would have to go against the wind. The Door peninsula fire was caused by the same causes as Peshtigo. The wind was blowing from the southwest to the northeast. Look at a map from that time and see what occurred.
@Samuel Drewry To be fair, multiple sources incorrectly claim that the fire jumped the bay, and if the winds had been going in the right direction a 13 mile jump is not unheard of. But, the National Weather Service came to the conclusion that they were most likely two separate fires, and they've got the wind data to back it up. It's also worth noting, that according to first hand accounts collected by the Peshtigo fire museum, towns and cities across the region had been constantly fighting fires for weeks, and this fire was one of at least five separate deadly wildfires (and countless smaller fires) burning across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois at the same time. All because of the incredibly dry conditions; and the common practice of clearing brush, stumps, etc. by setting them on fire and leaving them to burn.
I have also read about fires starting either spontaneously or by the the winds in the atmosphere that were caused by the intense fires of Chicago and Peshtigo across Lake Michigan into Michigan causing many fires to break out all over Michigan even all the way over to Michigan's east side on Lake Huron and untold property damage and destruction and also an unknown number of casualties of deaths and injuries. This fact has been proven by the number of news reports out of Michigan on the days of October 9, 10, and 11th 1871.
The Michigan (thumb) fires occurred during daylight hours so people were able to save themselves where as the Wisconsin and Illinois fires were during the evening when most people were sleeping. Can't remember where I read that the people of Holland Michigan being devoted Christians refused to fight the fire because they would have to break the Sabbath.
I am SO glad you did a video on this! It’s a criminally unknown disaster, and it deserves attention. Thank you for doing this story justice. I am a Wisconsinite and heard about this growing up quite a bit, especially since the fire also spread into parts of Brown, Door, and Kewaunee Counties. I know miracles aren’t really part of historical retellings, but those interested should also looking into the miracle at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, WI. TLDR: The fire didn’t consume the consecrated grounds or buildings there, only the perimeter of the fence. All animals and people on the chapel grounds were saved.
You're not kidding when you say it's not well known. As a lifelong Wisconsin resident in my 50's i can NOT believe I've never heard of this. Embarrassed.
Being a lifelong Chicagoland resident, I grew up with tales of the Chicago fire. But, I also read about the Peshtigo Fire in one of those People’s Almanacs that were so popular in my youth in the 1970s. There, it was portrayed as the fire everyone should know about because of the much greater death count and destruction area. In the 1990s, I worked with someone from Peshtigo. When he said his hometown name, I immediately responded with, “Oh, where the fire was!” He was shocked I had even heard of it.
@@kathyastrom1315 that’s exactly how it is! You’d be surprised that honestly only folks in NE Wisconsin really know about it the most. Beyond that, a lot of lifelong Wisconsinites have never heard of it as well.
Recently I found that a great x4 grandpa on my moms side had been from the Peshtigo, WI area, however that month before he had to head down to Milwaukee for some reason (business?). When word spread of the fire, he immediately went back upstate to find his brother. The fire was so extensive, he couldn’t be sure of which plot of land was his brothers (he was a farmer) until he found his brothers wife tangled up in the branches of a nearby tree, barely recognizable from the amount of char. He couldn’t find a trace of his brother, nor of the couples young children. After that, my ancestor relocated to Fond du Lac, found and married my great x4 grandma and the rest is history. It’s crazy how close my ancestor was to being a victim of this; I wouldn’t even be here today if he didn’t go to Milwaukee when he did
A big part of why this happened was the large-scale clear-cutting of old-growth forests in the Great Lakes region, leaving huge "cutover" regions with little more than dead stumps. Fire-prone as hell.
Having grown up in Victoria, Australia, I find there's a quite grim familiarity to the story of Peshtigo. As in, how much people's awareness of bushfire dangers have evolved since those days, considering that the mid 19th century was also the era of the strikingly similar Black Thursday bushfires (February 6th 1851), or even at a stretch the Black Friday fires (January 13th 1939). The quality of your story-telling is excellent. Definitely subscribed.
Peter Pernin's account of the fire was both lucid and vivid. It reminded me of survivor accounts of the 2003 Canberra bushfires. You could never believe the ferocity of a true firestorm unless confronted with the evidence.
I know, right? And to think that in the ‘80s it was all “wear long sleeved clothes - wool preferred, have wool blankets soaked in water to beat the flames back, fill your bathtub and sinks, close the curtains, hose pipes to flood your gutters.” As if any of that is actually useful or would work. I’m glad now the message is “leave early”. My first experience was Ash Wednesday. My family was newly settled from England and the red glow on the top of Mount Dandenong was scary and we had black smuts fall in the garden. It was completely incomprehensible to my little kid mind.
*Thank you so much for covering this devastating event that's close to my heart.* ❤️🔥 I'm a San Diegan now, but I grew up in the small town of Peshtigo, attending elementary and high-school there. What a unique experience that was. I recall taking a field trip to the "Fire Museum," as we called it. And in varsity band we played " *Finger of God* " at our spring concerts: a magnificent piece written for and dedicated to the City of Peshtigo; this musical composition includes narrated accounts of the catastrophe from Fr. Peter Pernin's book "Peshtigo Fire Memoir: The Finger of God is There."
We have visited the museum in Pestigo, as seen at the end of the video, while there are not many artifacts that remain, those that do truely show the power of that inferno. A big contributor to the fire was due to an extremely dry and hot summer after years of warm and wet conditions.
I'm a Wisconsinite, born and bred. Lived here all my life. I've never heard this story! Thank you for bringing these lesser-known events to modern attention. I'm glad I can learn more about my home's history.
If you’re still doing this many years from now, I imagine the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment will be something you’ll cover. Today’s video was great! I always look forward to Tuesdays because of your posts.
I live about 40 minutes to an hour from Peshtigo. To this day there are museums, an abundance of grave markers, and various monuments to the fire. Local businesses have names referencing the fire (go to Embers if you're ever in the area, the food is incredible). The town still remembers it to this day.
1M! Congrats 🎉 I’ve been with you since your first video and haven’t missed one. What has kept me coming back is mainly your empathy and how you treat the victims with the utmost respect while telling their stories. Also, the quality of your research and writing is unparalleled. Thank you so much for your hard work! Hope you have a lovely rest of your week 💚🙏🕊
I wish I had found him that early. I don't even remember now how I did but I am happy about it. Like you, I appreciate the respect for the victims. I also like the 'no drama' aspect. There's a great true crime channel that does the same thing. Just the facts, no drama.
@@kathyjones1576 I love Brief Case! The best historical true crime channel! And, imho, with Jim Can't Swim, their success was largely due to their respect for the victims and their families. Not to mention pro level analyses that civilians never get to hear otherwise. Okay, I'm babbling now lol, sorry! ❤️🕊🙏
@@MayimHastings I haven't heard of Jim Can't Swim. The Crime Reel is another good one. Brief Case is my favorite true crime channel. Every once in awhile, Brief Case and Crime Reel collaborate, which is pretty cool.
I live in the woods of northern MN - similar to WI. It's terrifying to think of the surrounding forest suddenly lighting up in a firestorm, even with today's firefighting technology. I can only imagine what the poor people of Peshtigo experienced. Thanks, as usual, for sharing about a little-known disaster.
Per one account, temperatures at the core of the [Hinkley] fire were over 1,600 degree Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt barrels of nails and fuse railcar wheels to the tracks.
I remember when this channel had 68 THOUSAND subscribers! You've worked so hard, your style is so respectful and informative, without sensationalizing or disrespecting the people in the stories, and you've TOTALLY earned it, Sir. Congrats on a million subscribers!
Your research and coverage of these stories that would be mostly forgotten if it wasn’t for you is very admirable! It also makes for an entertaining and interesting story for us to learn about in the process. Congrats on 1 Million subs, and keep up the great work!
I live in Northeast Wisconsin, it's almost surreal to have a Facinating Horror story so close to home! Urban legend is that a spark from the Chicago Fire caused the Peshtigo fire. Love your series, congrats on your 1M!
Thank you so much for covering Peshtigo! I've been an advocate of this fitting on your channel for some time and I'm thrilled to see it get the recognition it deserves. So few people outside of northern Wisconsin even know that there WAS a fire in Peshtigo, let alone how catastrophic it was. It is FASCINATING that the firebombing of WWII were, in part, designed with a desire to re-create the conditions in Peshtigo. I didn't even know that. At the time, one of the surviving newspapers in a nearby town, in the days following the fire, printed in the obituary section, merely the word "Peshtigo," followed by the printer's symbol for mourning. For those interested in a fictionalized--but closely researched--account, Beverly Butler of Wisconsin wrote a YA novel called "My Sister's Keeper," which takes place in and around Peshtigo leading up to and following the fire. Kudos on getting the pronunciation of the town right! Thank you for commemorating the lives lost in this little-known natural disaster.
Hello Fascinating Horror. Thank you for covering a devastating event in our Home State of WI. I would highly recommend a short documentary on our Hometown of "New Richmond, WI" as the original town was wiped out in 1899 by I believe Wisconsin's deadliest tornado. It's well documented in our historical museum. "On June 12th, 1899, one of the most tragic weather events in Wisconsin, the New Richmond "cyclone" struck on a hot summer afternoon of the first day of the Gollmar Brothers Circus. "With the circus in town, the population swelled as unsuspecting victims poured into New Richmond for the festivities. The tornado moved into Wisconsin as a spectacular waterspout on Lake St. Croix. The funnel moved to the northeast in the direction of New Richmond. Three people were killed at two locations as farms were leveled near Burkhardt and Boardman. Shortly after the circus ended, the tornado passed through the very center of town, completely leveling buildings in what was estimated to be a strip about 1000 feet wide and 3000 feet long. Over 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed. A 3000 pound safe was carried a full block. Massive amounts of flying debris resulted in multiple deaths in at least 26 different families. Six families had four or more deaths. The good visibility of the funnel may have prevented an even higher death total. While not a massive tornado, the tragic timing and deadly path claimed 117 lives and caused 150 injuries by this historic Wisconsin tornado." www.weather.gov/mkx/0612-1899-newrichmond-tornado
Another Wisconsin native here (born and raised in Madison). I knew about how deadly the New Richmond tornado was, but I had no idea about the circus connection. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. And, of course,the relative lack of communication/warnings and the less advanced state of weather forecasting then made things much worse happening then than now.
Gotta love RUclips doing its job and actually notifying me that one if my favorite creators posted. Also an almost all wooden town was bound to catch fire, it was only a matter of time. Especially with how chill they were about fire and smoke.
@@civotamuaz5781 Not correct. Germany attempted it during the London Blitz but did not have enough bombers. Britain designed a bombload optimized for starting a firestorm n 1943, but the first successful firestorm wasn't created until 1945 in Dresden, a joint raid by Britain and the US. The US didn't manage it on their own until 1945 in Japan.
The HBO series The Gilded Age references this disaster, along with the Great Chicago Fire in its second to last episode. It was my first time hearing anything about it, so I appreciate hearing a much deeper exploration of that here. Felicidades on 1 million subscribers as well! 👏👏👏
We were so insanely lucky in the Camp Fire (Northern CA, 2018) not to lose far more people than 85. Without the extraordinary efforts of rescuers, professional and casual, it would have been so much worse. I was scanning and relaying information from a neighboring town when Paradise burned. I never want to hear that sort of dread and hopeless panic ever again; the ability of law enforcment and fire rescue personnel to function despite it all is what saved lives. Be prepared even for the unlikely, and always have a plan.
I vaguely remember learning about this back in middle or high school I grew up in Madison, about 2½ hours southwest of Peshtigo. It's interesting that I also learned of the Chicago fire but never was I taught they occurred on the same day. That's wild! 🤯🤯🤯
I grew up in Northeast Wisconsin and in Elementary school every year we would learn about it and take a field trip to the little fire museum in Peshtigo itself.
Same, I grew up in WI and when it came time to learn about the Chicago fire, our teacher told us to close our books because we were learning about the Peshtigo fire instead.
Thank you for covering this disaster with your usual class and grace, and thank you for pronouncing Peshtigo correctly (I'm originally from northeast Wisconsin, and it drives me batty when people pronounce it as 'pesh-TEE-go')!! Notably, the drought was widespread, as was the cold front that generated the gale-force winds that blew the fire into a monster, and there were also devastating fires across the lake in Michigan on the same day. Nothing was learned from this fire in regards to lumber practices, and Wisconsin's forests experienced devastating fires for decades after Peshtigo before changes were finally implemented. One problem with identifying the number of people killed by the Peshtigo Fire was that in many places the fire burned as hot or hotter than a crematorium- many people were completely incinerated. The death toll ranges anywhere from ~1500 to over 2500, making it one of the deadliest wildfires not just in the US but in all of recorded history, and there were so many people in the woods in smaller communities or isolated homesteads who died that even trying to use records from the towns that were destroyed isn't super useful. There is also a mass grave of ~350 bodies in Peshtigo near the museum. No one left alive could identify them, so they were all buried together. There are other mass graves across the region, and some are still being discovered, so it's likely we will never know the true human cost of the fire. There are many other horrifying stories from the fire. A large hotel had just been built in Peshtigo, and when the fire struck many people, for whatever reason, fled into the hotel. It was timber construction like everything else in the town, and within seconds it went up like a tinderbox, trapping all those people inside. There was also a bridge across the river, and many people fled for the bridge, hoping that the river would prove a natual firebreak and that they would be safe on the other side. Unfortunately, the fire-generated wind blasted embers and sparks far ahead of the main fire front, and within moments the bridge was blazing at both ends, trapping scores of people in the middle. They were left with no choice but to leap over the side of the bridge and plunge into the frigid water. Many of those people drowned or died of hypothermia, and anyone who couldn't get off the bridge burned. There are also accounts of how the wind was so fierce it seemed to snatch people off the street and suck them into the fire (there are similar stories from the bombing of Dresden during WWII, which was one of the bombing campaigns that used information from Peshtigo). There is some evidence that an actual fire tornado possibly formed near Peshtigo, too, which only increased the fire's destructive power.
My mom grew up in Peshtigo and I’ve visited family there multiple times in my life. I have visited the fire museum, so I’ve known about this for a long time. Great to see it covered here.
Peshtigo is a couple hours south of me (or a short drive north of Green Bay) and they have a wonderful museum dedicated to the history of the fire. It used to be that the main highway traveled right through town but when it was upgraded, it bypasses the town so you have to take a short detour to visit. The smaller but more famous Chicago fire is remembered, but this catastrophe has faded from memory unless you live in the area. Thank you for featuring this story.
That was very well done. We who were born there or in the Marinette area have a reverence for this event. Not because we care about it's unpopularity compared to Chicago so much, but because it was so terrible that we knew we could never let that happen again. And so we all grew up with this knowledge in our bones. People were simply nonchalant with fire then...father Pernin has an amazing read on the entire event. It should be free online to read. Really puts you in their shoes that awful night.
I love how peoples’ descriptions of events back then read like poetry😅. They could be describing something as mundane as waking up and going for breakfast and realizing they are out of cereal, ‘I woketh from a great slumber and as if summoned by an enchantress whispering from the morns soft dewy light, drifted to me breakfast chamber and findeth, lo, but a sundry bit of grain scattered about the bottoms of me cereal pot’
To be fair, these descriptions are made after the event took place, allowing for more time to reflect on the event and come up with better ways to describe it.
I lived in Wisconsin for 9 years, I knew the name Peshtigo sounded familiar. I had heard about this, but only briefly, not all these details. This is an example of nature at its worst. Everything was working against the people on this day. It shows the strength of a community though, because they rebuilt and are now thriving. Congratulations on passing 1,000,000 subscribers! Yay! I've been watching that number go up, keeping a specially close eye on it the last few weeks. This is a fantastic channel. You deserve the recognition. 👍
I was about to make a comment asking about if the Big Burn was actually more severe, especially in response to your statement at 0:43. I abandoned it for 2 reasons: death toll and the difference between forest fire and wildfire (yes, surprisingly, there is a difference between the two words). But yeah, the Big Burn did have more land affected than this fire, as well as it changed how we approached wildfires and preservation efforts. It’d be a good topic to cover, especially to represent the Pacific Northwest. I LOVE your videos!
My father was born and raised in Peshtigo, and a couple of my ancestors survived the fire by immersing themselves in a shallow tributary of the Peshtigo River and breathing through reeds. People taking shelter behind large rocks; some survived, while others only a few feet away were turned to piles of dust because their bones had been calcined. A ferry boat in the Green Bay attempted to pick up people on the beaches, but was forced to anchor a mile offshore while they put out fires on the ship from burning tree branches that fell on the decks most of the night. Truly a horrible evening.
I have lived in Wisconsin my entire life and it is so unbelievably sad that so many people do not know about this tragedy! The museum is on my list of places I want to visit . Thank you Fascinating Horrors for making a video about this. I pray all the souls who lost their lives in this absolutely horrific event are resting in peace. I truly cannot fathom the utter fear they must have felt. 😢
Thank you for covering the Peshtigo fire. As a native of Wisconsin, we learned about it in school, but outside of Wisconsin, I doubt it’s even discussed as it’s overshadowed by the Chicago fire. The storm the fire created reminds me of the fires in Santa Rosa, California. One of my college besties and her husband literally lost everything, including their cats, when it came to their area in the middle of the night. They had to jump into their pool with a sheet and hide there all night to survive.
Awesome cover of one of our lesser known tragedies, thanks for giving us Wisconsinites some love! Oh yeah, the Peshtigo River has some amazing fishing action too!
I've always said this is the most underrated channel on RUclips. I always feel like I'm watching a professional Hollywood documentary production with this channel. It's incredible work, congrats on 1M!
A bit baffling how little-known this is. I mean, between Peshtigo being (nowadays) a tiny little hamlet, and the coincidence that it happened on the same day as the much more famous Chicago Fire, I can see it not being all that well-known outside of Wisconsin or the midwest. The surprising part to me is that, even locally, it's not really ever talked about. Peshtigo is only about an hour north of Green Bay, and yet I had never heard of it until recently despite having lived in Northeast Wisconsin (mainly Appleton and Green Bay) my entire life.
I've been in the Fox Valley for 35 years now and I keep meaning to spend time in Peshtigo at the museum but I haven't done it yet....I read a book from the Kaukauna library that talked about both fires...Peshtigo never got huge so you can still relate to some of the streets, etc.
I knew there had been a fire in Peshtigo but was unaware of the details. As usual you presented the facts without any sensational drama. I'm happy to see you have reached a million subscribers and I'm looking forward to more informative videos to come.
In Wisconsin we learn about this fire in Elementary school. The most likely cause we were taught was railroad contractors burning slash (stumps, brush, and trees) along right of ways. Apparently the railroads were notorious for starting large unattended fires with no regard for what they burned, and there had been several documented smaller cases of this earlier that year.
Thank you for covering the Peshtigo Fire! We live in Wisconsin (not far from Peshtigo) and not many people outside of the state know about this disaster.
1. Love this channel ☺️ 2. Love HOW you cover the material (detail, succinct, honest, with survivor accounts, respect, but no needless endless list of hyperbolic adjectives). 3. If you cover fires, and happen to have time, The Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 is another interesting one I'd love to see. 4. Congrats on the 1 mill!!!
Hey I'm another Wisconsinite, I see you have a couple of us now! Thanks for telling this story. I'm pretty sure you got everything I was thinking " I wonder if he will mention ____." Good job as always.
My mom is originally from Peshtigo, so we used to travel up there several times a year to visit family. Very few outside the state know about the Peshtigo fire, so thank you so much for covering it here!
Well done on your excellent videos. They are well researched, easy to understand, good use of photographs and maps and above all respectful to the victims.
I remember reading about a incident during this fire where a man was running with his wife in his arms and he bumped into somebody and then he picked up what he thought was his wife only to get to the river and realize it was a completely different woman. Of course his wife was dead, a blackened corpse in the middle of the town. By the time he realized his mistake.
Congratulations on a million 🎉 Well deserved, from the way you upload different types of incidents, being respectful to those unlucky and mentioning their stories from their perspective and sometimes mentioning them all name by name aswell as the great way you communicated with us on your sponsorship and of course the cute little crow.
I have been through Peshtigo many times. I have been through an area burned over in 1928. We followed old log drag trails to the head waters of the Yellow Dog River. The small lake was hip deep in yellow mud. We recovered a few items from a burned-out cabin. Round trip distance on foot was 30 miles from our drop off point. Our Guide later became Mayor of Marquette Michigan.
Excellent and interesting video as always. Congratulations on the milestone of one million subscribers. I look forward to seeing more of your enlightening content.
It amazes me that I grew up in Colorado with near-annual massive wildfires and eventually spent plenty of time studying disaster geography in college and still have not heard of this.
Thanks for talking about this event. I'm from a neighboring state and travel to Wisconsin often. The NE part of the state is beautiful, especially in summer and autumn. The Peshtigo Fire Museum is absolutely worth stopping at if you are ever in the area.
There are still trees growing with char marks on the stump from this fire. Really moist days in the old growth areas you can still smell the ash. It also skipped the bay and lit Door County WI on fire too...
Great video, I'm glad you cover little known and obscure events, they're interesting. I grew up just down the road from Peshtigo. There are a couple historical signs that mention the fire but not much detail. There's a museum but having passed through the town at least once a week for 15+ years I couldn't tell you where it is. Its not really talked about anymore, even in schools.
My grandmother grew up in Peshtigo. Being born in 1938 she obviously never witnessed the fire but heard first hand accounts from people who had actually witnessed it. It had a lasting impact on her as the majority of her nightmares involved fire, be it her house or being caught out in the forest.
A similar story with an added dramatic train rescue is the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894 Minnesota. The connection between firestorms and firebombing is interesting (and sad).
Bro. You are awesome. Been enjoying your work for two years now I believe? And it just keeps getting better. I love History. And you bring a unique take on a certain kind of it, we need never to forget. THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS ON 1MILL SUBS !! 🥳
I have lots of family in Wisconsin, and one summer, we visited the Peshtigo Fire Museum and nearby wood museum. I had never heard of this at the time! Thank you for sharing with a wider audience!
This fire was my case study for fire behavior class. I also live near peshtigo. A few things, many people were incinerated instantly from the fire. Some took shelter in ponds and the ponds were vaporized. A priest has an interesting account of how many took shelter in the stone church and prayed. Miraculously, they survived but the church bell was melted in the steeple.
I can't believe this also occurred on the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, no wonder it wasn't talked about as much.
Around 300 people died in the Chicago fire while 800 died just in the city of peshtigo itself, 1,200-2,400 total... property values exceed the value of life when it comes to headlines unfortunately.
The great Chicago fire was caused accidentally, tho the fire in peschtigo was caused by a forest fire probably a lightning strike or embers from a steam locomotive in the woods, who knows. Very odd on the same day though
Ive always wondered, how these 2 huge fires on the same day and not that far apart are treated so differently. Every1 seems to know about the Great Fire of Chicago, there are books, docs etc about it everywhere. While the Peshtigo Fire seems all but forgotten, u have to go looking for info, if u even know to look, which is only thanks to channels such as this.
Chicago had a better PR department.
Also, less dead in a more crowded city means more people who would speak of what they directly experienced in Chicago.
In addition to the flames, the fires surrounding Peshtigo burned the white pines so ferociously that the oxygen was stripped from the air quicker than volatile gases could combust. This notably resulted in glowing "bubbles" of atmosphere high above their flashpoint that were seen descending onto buildings and trees which, on contact, exploded into flame. The Peshtigo Fire was in all ways an utterly unprecedented experience for survivors and its victims.
Wow, this sounds wild. Are there any examples of this occurring in recent wildfires that you know of?
...hell came to visit
So I would think this forest of white pine you spoke of had still been original old-growth back then
Compared to state of Wisconsin's more recent fires containing replanted softwood pines for the paper and lumber industry.
@@CONCERTMANchicago While you are correct about it being largely old-growth before the fire, the fact is that White Pine is still White Pine, and all conifers are "soft woods". Of them, Tabletop Pine (maybe a colloquial term) is one of the harder physically... though Yellow Pine and Redwood are also fairly durable as Pine goes...
All your "hardwood" lumber comes from broad-leafed or "deciduous" trees... like Oak, Maple, or Cherry... and the like.
Honest, I'm not trying to bust your balls. A LOT of folks just don't know the technical details of the difference. It's easy for them to get scammed trying to buy enough lumber for a repair or a remodel if they try a DIY project. I hate that... and since I grew up around Carpentry and Woodwork and even "Old World Artisanal Woodcraft" I like to try (at least) and help against that.
Good Lord!
Thank you for covering this tragedy. I grew up in Wisconsin and people in here know about the Peshtigo fire but not many outside of the state. The estimate of 1700 is considered low because many of the smaller surrounding towns were completely burned. With no one left alive and no paper records remaining to say who they were, bodies were put in mass graves. There is a museum dedicated to the fire.
Paul Harvey did a piece on it on his nationally syndicated "The Rest of the Story" radio show some time in the eighties, so you can likely find a lot more older people who know about it than younger.
Btw the museum is open in the spring and summer and it’s free
Many disasters have uncounted people due to destroyed records and other records being discounted or incorrect by local authorities trying cover up the scale of the disaster. One of my family members was involved in the infamous Saint Francis Dam disaster. His grandfather (my distant cousin was about 10 years old at the time) told local authorities that the ranch had over a dozen local workers and their families (another 20 people) at the time (they were raising cattle, pigs, and chickens in the San Francisquito area) when the Dam collapsed. When he (my cousin) came back years later (for pilot training in WWII) he found that they had not listed everyone, but the recovered body of one worker (which his grandfather had identified). That means about at least two dozen people were never counted in the final casualty list (they were migrant workers, so the local authorities didn't really care or were trying to lower their final count). He actually knew the names as his dad remembered the workers and their families (his dad carried a notebook to the day he died with all the people from the ranch who died that night). He (my cousin) tried to add names to the official casualties list and the local authorities told him that the official list was closed out in 1929 and couldn't have names added to it unless the bodies were found.
As a Green Bay resident I did not know about this fire!
@MARK S Sorry that no one would record their names. That is tragic. Makes you wonder how many family members wondered but never knew the truth. BTW Ask A Mortician has a great video on the Saint Francis Dam Disaster.
Can't help but note the sad irony of those who died of hypothermia during a massive fire. Great production, as usual.
Rivers in Wisconsin are damn cold year-round. Source: I've lived in Green Bay and Appleton my whole life.
@@Darkkfated My dad's family lives in western WI near the boarder to MN. One summer when I was a kid we were up there and took a trip over to Lake Superior. To this day I don't think I've experienced water colder than swimming in Superior even in the height of summer. That lake makes the rivers up there feel almost warm by comparison.
@@SolaScientia Oh yeah, the Great Lakes are also cold as hell unless we're in the middle of an extended heatwave in July/August.
@@Darkkfated I think we were up there at Superior in late June/early July and it was still so damn cold.
It's like your house catching fire in a flood😶
*Congratulations on 1M subs! You deserve it. Thanks for all you do!* 👍
He doesn't do much just some research and talking smh
@@jackimhoff6767 appearantly you've never heard of editing. Sometimes when you don't know what you're talking about it's best to keep your mouth shut.
@jackimhoff And yet, here you are.
@@jackimhoff6767 you're a jack off smh.
@@jackimhoff6767 editing with high end software is an art form bro, the timings... transitions... getting all those clips merged
Not to mention all the shit he has collected to use that did not make the cut
You know like the BBC has entire rooms of people for that shit!? ... and that's just the edit room
I'm a cheesehead and we learned about this in elementary school.
And the teacher also made sure to warn us that nobody from any other state would have the slightest idea what we were talking about. Such a horrible event to be all but forgotten.
I remember reading a book I came across in the high school I attended that gave an account of the Peshtigo fire.
I'm next door in Minnesota and haven't heard of this!
Sarah. What the heck is “a cheesehead?” Peace and love from England.
@@fraserwood2600 it's a familiar term for a person from Wisconsin (of course cheese is one of our specialties), especially if they are a fan of the local football team. It used to be a derogatory nickname but people decided we liked it and now you'll see people wearing giant cheese-shaped hats at games!
Same. Hello from Sawyer County
The gold standard for respectful disaster vids
I've been asking channels to cover this for years! I live not far from Peshtigo and was always shocked with how unknown this disaster is. Literally the deadliest fire in recorded US history and hardly anyone knows about it. So thank you for covering it.
History Guy has an excellent video on this fire.
I read about this fire a few years ago and I'm from the UK, although I couldn't remember the name of the place. When this popped up I knew exactly what it was and glad it's been covered on a large channel like this in recognition of what happened. It is a truly horrifying event.
@@MightyMezzo he was the only guy with a good video on it for years!
Might want to look into Randall Carlson and his work on this subject. He has about 10 hours just on the Peshtigo, Brushy creek, and Manistee fire. The channel is called Osmographia I believe.
So sad for all these people who went through this. Must have been horrifying to be in the middle of the river and still catch fire. Thank God for all those who came to their aid and sent supplies.
You don't know how lucky we are living in the "modern" world. The simplest thing today is called global warming disaster. But almost no one is killed by our natural world. That includes stormy weather which is not man made!
@@Varangian_af_Scaniae this comment comes off as very ignorant. People die from famine and flooding and tornadoes and tropical storms even today. 37,000 people have died from just one earthquake this month. There has been a famine going on in north east Africa for a long time, people doing of starvation. You may not personally suffer from natural disasters wherever you live, but millions are displaced or killed by natural forces every year.
@@mchjsosde 37000 people is nothing on the large scale. We are 8 billion people! If you go back 100 years, the amount of dead from natural disasters was enormous. Today it's in per mille.
It's not ignorance it's just callousness.
Starvation is a natural thing, when there are to many animals in one place and the prey and harvest isn't enough, nature compensate by killing of the animals. Sure the human animal is smart and has learned to overcome nature in many places.
But the fact still is that not many people die from natural disasters today.
I think it was reported that the fire burned even the roots of the trees that were down in the ground. This fire is horrifying, worse than the one in Chicago, and yet the Chicago fire is the one everyone is taught about in school. I can't imagine the fear and incredible stress the people in the town underwent, and what trauma they must have had all their lives afterwards.
Having taken place on the same day as the Great Chicago fire, it's obvious how this tragedy is much less well known, so thank you for featuring this on your channel
In Wisconsin we all are taught about both. There's no hard feelings, only kinda sadness and awe at how quickly life can be taken. I feel bad for Chicago too. That was a bad day.
Thank you for doing my suggestion. As someone from the area, it is one of the most surreal memories of going to the Peshtigo Fire Museum as a kid and hearing this story. I did not know they studied the Fire for fire bombing in WW2. Thanks again.
There must of been a few of us asking. I had mentioned this fire when he did the Chigago fire video. I am so glad Peshtigo is getting told more widely.
My dad's entire side of the family is from the next town south, Oconto. I have heard many stories of the Great Peshtigo fire growing up and it is very cool that it was featured. A little known fact of the fire is that the flames were so large that the fire actually jumped the 13 miles across Green Bay and the Door peninsula caught fire that same night!
The fire did not jump the bay. To do so it would have to go against the wind. The Door peninsula fire was caused by the same causes as Peshtigo. The wind was blowing from the southwest to the northeast. Look at a map from that time and see what occurred.
@Samuel Drewry To be fair, multiple sources incorrectly claim that the fire jumped the bay, and if the winds had been going in the right direction a 13 mile jump is not unheard of.
But, the National Weather Service came to the conclusion that they were most likely two separate fires, and they've got the wind data to back it up.
It's also worth noting, that according to first hand accounts collected by the Peshtigo fire museum, towns and cities across the region had been constantly fighting fires for weeks, and this fire was one of at least five separate deadly wildfires (and countless smaller fires) burning across Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois at the same time.
All because of the incredibly dry conditions; and the common practice of clearing brush, stumps, etc. by setting them on fire and leaving them to burn.
I have also read about fires starting either spontaneously or by the the winds in the atmosphere that were caused by the intense fires of Chicago and Peshtigo across Lake Michigan into Michigan causing many fires to break out all over Michigan even all the way over to Michigan's east side on Lake Huron and untold property damage and destruction and also an unknown number of casualties of deaths and injuries. This fact has been proven by the number of news reports out of Michigan on the days of October 9, 10, and 11th 1871.
The Michigan (thumb) fires occurred during daylight hours so people were able to save themselves where as the Wisconsin and Illinois fires were during the evening when most people were sleeping. Can't remember where I read that the people of Holland Michigan being devoted Christians refused to fight the fire because they would have to break the Sabbath.
I am SO glad you did a video on this! It’s a criminally unknown disaster, and it deserves attention. Thank you for doing this story justice. I am a Wisconsinite and heard about this growing up quite a bit, especially since the fire also spread into parts of Brown, Door, and Kewaunee Counties. I know miracles aren’t really part of historical retellings, but those interested should also looking into the miracle at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, WI.
TLDR: The fire didn’t consume the consecrated grounds or buildings there, only the perimeter of the fence. All animals and people on the chapel grounds were saved.
You're not kidding when you say it's not well known.
As a lifelong Wisconsin resident in my 50's i can NOT believe I've never heard of this.
Embarrassed.
Being a lifelong Chicagoland resident, I grew up with tales of the Chicago fire. But, I also read about the Peshtigo Fire in one of those People’s Almanacs that were so popular in my youth in the 1970s. There, it was portrayed as the fire everyone should know about because of the much greater death count and destruction area.
In the 1990s, I worked with someone from Peshtigo. When he said his hometown name, I immediately responded with, “Oh, where the fire was!” He was shocked I had even heard of it.
@@kathyastrom1315 that’s exactly how it is! You’d be surprised that honestly only folks in NE Wisconsin really know about it the most. Beyond that, a lot of lifelong Wisconsinites have never heard of it as well.
Good Lord, that sounds huge!
Is it a disaster when you set your own wooden town on fire? Hardly an earthquake or reactor failiure. Just natural selection.
Recently I found that a great x4 grandpa on my moms side had been from the Peshtigo, WI area, however that month before he had to head down to Milwaukee for some reason (business?). When word spread of the fire, he immediately went back upstate to find his brother. The fire was so extensive, he couldn’t be sure of which plot of land was his brothers (he was a farmer) until he found his brothers wife tangled up in the branches of a nearby tree, barely recognizable from the amount of char. He couldn’t find a trace of his brother, nor of the couples young children. After that, my ancestor relocated to Fond du Lac, found and married my great x4 grandma and the rest is history. It’s crazy how close my ancestor was to being a victim of this; I wouldn’t even be here today if he didn’t go to Milwaukee when he did
Im glad you’re here. I’m sorry to hear about your great x4 grand uncle and his family.
A big part of why this happened was the large-scale clear-cutting of old-growth forests in the Great Lakes region, leaving huge "cutover" regions with little more than dead stumps. Fire-prone as hell.
“as wood was an abundant resource, it was used in Peshtigo for everything” that’s what we call foreshadowing
Read this comment AS he was saying it. Felt even more ominous!
Having grown up in Victoria, Australia, I find there's a quite grim familiarity to the story of Peshtigo. As in, how much people's awareness of bushfire dangers have evolved since those days, considering that the mid 19th century was also the era of the strikingly similar Black Thursday bushfires (February 6th 1851), or even at a stretch the Black Friday fires (January 13th 1939).
The quality of your story-telling is excellent. Definitely subscribed.
Peter Pernin's account of the fire was both lucid and vivid. It reminded me of survivor accounts of the 2003 Canberra bushfires. You could never believe the ferocity of a true firestorm unless confronted with the evidence.
I know, right? And to think that in the ‘80s it was all “wear long sleeved clothes - wool preferred, have wool blankets soaked in water to beat the flames back, fill your bathtub and sinks, close the curtains, hose pipes to flood your gutters.” As if any of that is actually useful or would work. I’m glad now the message is “leave early”.
My first experience was Ash Wednesday. My family was newly settled from England and the red glow on the top of Mount Dandenong was scary and we had black smuts fall in the garden. It was completely incomprehensible to my little kid mind.
That reporter's video of the Canberrra firestorm is etched into my mind. It really *does* look like Father Pernin's description.
*Thank you so much for covering this devastating event that's close to my heart.* ❤️🔥
I'm a San Diegan now, but I grew up in the small town of Peshtigo, attending elementary and high-school there. What a unique experience that was. I recall taking a field trip to the "Fire Museum," as we called it. And in varsity band we played " *Finger of God* " at our spring concerts: a magnificent piece written for and dedicated to the City of Peshtigo; this musical composition includes narrated accounts of the catastrophe from Fr. Peter Pernin's book "Peshtigo Fire Memoir: The Finger of God is There."
Yo! Wisconsin native here.
Peshtigo is a pretty nice place.
We have visited the museum in Pestigo, as seen at the end of the video, while there are not many artifacts that remain, those that do truely show the power of that inferno. A big contributor to the fire was due to an extremely dry and hot summer after years of warm and wet conditions.
I'm a simple woman. I see a new Fascinating Horror video, I click.
I'm a Wisconsinite, born and bred. Lived here all my life. I've never heard this story! Thank you for bringing these lesser-known events to modern attention. I'm glad I can learn more about my home's history.
If you’re still doing this many years from now, I imagine the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment will be something you’ll cover.
Today’s video was great! I always look forward to Tuesdays because of your posts.
I live about 40 minutes to an hour from Peshtigo. To this day there are museums, an abundance of grave markers, and various monuments to the fire. Local businesses have names referencing the fire (go to Embers if you're ever in the area, the food is incredible). The town still remembers it to this day.
Another tragedy I never heard of you do a magnificent job covering these
It was the same day as the Great Chicago Fire, along with a massive fire in Michigan.
1M! Congrats 🎉 I’ve been with you since your first video and haven’t missed one. What has kept me coming back is mainly your empathy and how you treat the victims with the utmost respect while telling their stories. Also, the quality of your research and writing is unparalleled. Thank you so much for your hard work! Hope you have a lovely rest of your week 💚🙏🕊
I wish I had found him that early. I don't even remember now how I did but I am happy about it. Like you, I appreciate the respect for the victims. I also like the 'no drama' aspect. There's a great true crime channel that does the same thing. Just the facts, no drama.
@@kathyjones1576 what channel?
@@missbraindamage Brief Case. He talks about old cases. It's really fascinating to hear how the police solved cases 100 years ago, or longer.
@@kathyjones1576 I love Brief Case! The best historical true crime channel! And, imho, with Jim Can't Swim, their success was largely due to their respect for the victims and their families. Not to mention pro level analyses that civilians never get to hear otherwise. Okay, I'm babbling now lol, sorry! ❤️🕊🙏
@@MayimHastings I haven't heard of Jim Can't Swim. The Crime Reel is another good one. Brief Case is my favorite true crime channel. Every once in awhile, Brief Case and Crime Reel collaborate, which is pretty cool.
I live in the woods of northern MN - similar to WI. It's terrifying to think of the surrounding forest suddenly lighting up in a firestorm, even with today's firefighting technology. I can only imagine what the poor people of Peshtigo experienced. Thanks, as usual, for sharing about a little-known disaster.
Hinkley
Both Hinckley, MN (1894) and Cloquet, MN (1918) suffered their own massive forest fires. Nearly 500 people died in each.
Per one account, temperatures at the core of the [Hinkley] fire were over 1,600 degree Fahrenheit, hot enough to melt barrels of nails and fuse railcar wheels to the tracks.
I remember when this channel had 68 THOUSAND subscribers! You've worked so hard, your style is so respectful and informative, without sensationalizing or disrespecting the people in the stories, and you've TOTALLY earned it, Sir. Congrats on a million subscribers!
Some of my maternal ancestors survived the fire. They headed for the river, and survived mainly because they knew how to swim.
As a Wisconsin boy, I thank you for covering this dark chapter of my home
Your research and coverage of these stories that would be mostly forgotten if it wasn’t for you is very admirable! It also makes for an entertaining and interesting story for us to learn about in the process. Congrats on 1 Million subs, and keep up the great work!
Fire is one of my worst fears. Whether it’s the smoke inhalation or being burned alive, either way, sounds like a torturous way to pass.
Smoke inhalation doesn't sound that bad, just a quick loss of consciousness.
@@edeliteedelite1961 I didn’t know it was that quick
I live in Northeast Wisconsin, it's almost surreal to have a Facinating Horror story so close to home! Urban legend is that a spark from the Chicago Fire caused the Peshtigo fire. Love your series, congrats on your 1M!
Thank you so much for covering Peshtigo! I've been an advocate of this fitting on your channel for some time and I'm thrilled to see it get the recognition it deserves. So few people outside of northern Wisconsin even know that there WAS a fire in Peshtigo, let alone how catastrophic it was.
It is FASCINATING that the firebombing of WWII were, in part, designed with a desire to re-create the conditions in Peshtigo. I didn't even know that.
At the time, one of the surviving newspapers in a nearby town, in the days following the fire, printed in the obituary section, merely the word "Peshtigo," followed by the printer's symbol for mourning.
For those interested in a fictionalized--but closely researched--account, Beverly Butler of Wisconsin wrote a YA novel called "My Sister's Keeper," which takes place in and around Peshtigo leading up to and following the fire.
Kudos on getting the pronunciation of the town right! Thank you for commemorating the lives lost in this little-known natural disaster.
Hello Fascinating Horror. Thank you for covering a devastating event in our Home State of WI. I would highly recommend a short documentary on our Hometown of "New Richmond, WI"
as the original town was wiped out in 1899 by I believe Wisconsin's deadliest tornado. It's well documented in our historical museum.
"On June 12th, 1899, one of the most tragic weather events in Wisconsin, the New Richmond "cyclone" struck on a hot summer afternoon of the first day of the Gollmar Brothers Circus.
"With the circus in town, the population swelled as unsuspecting victims poured into New Richmond for the festivities. The tornado moved into Wisconsin as a spectacular waterspout on Lake St. Croix. The funnel moved to the northeast in the direction of New Richmond. Three people were killed at two locations as farms were leveled near Burkhardt and Boardman. Shortly after the circus ended, the tornado passed through the very center of town, completely leveling buildings in what was estimated to be a strip about 1000 feet wide and 3000 feet long.
Over 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed. A 3000 pound safe was carried a full block. Massive amounts of flying debris resulted in multiple deaths in at least 26 different families. Six families had four or more deaths. The good visibility of the funnel may have prevented an even higher death total.
While not a massive tornado, the tragic timing and deadly path claimed 117 lives and caused 150 injuries by this historic Wisconsin tornado."
www.weather.gov/mkx/0612-1899-newrichmond-tornado
Oh Wow. I live by New Richmond and had no idea.
Another Wisconsin native here (born and raised in Madison). I knew about how deadly the New Richmond tornado was, but I had no idea about the circus connection. Thank you for bringing that to our attention. And, of course,the relative lack of communication/warnings and the less advanced state of weather forecasting then made things much worse happening then than now.
Gotta love RUclips doing its job and actually notifying me that one if my favorite creators posted.
Also an almost all wooden town was bound to catch fire, it was only a matter of time. Especially with how chill they were about fire and smoke.
It is unfortunately all too human to hear of a fire this deadly and say "let's weaponize this".
All too American rather
@@civotamuaz5781 Not correct. Germany attempted it during the London Blitz but did not have enough bombers.
Britain designed a bombload optimized for starting a firestorm n 1943, but the first successful firestorm wasn't created until 1945 in Dresden, a joint raid by Britain and the US.
The US didn't manage it on their own until 1945 in Japan.
@@civotamuaz5781 No, OP was right. It’s a very human thing.
@@civotamuaz5781 Because only Americans create weapons? You don’t make any sense
@@mbryson2899 nazis did a pretty good job on Coventry though.
The HBO series The Gilded Age references this disaster, along with the Great Chicago Fire in its second to last episode.
It was my first time hearing anything about it, so I appreciate hearing a much deeper exploration of that here.
Felicidades on 1 million subscribers as well! 👏👏👏
We were so insanely lucky in the Camp Fire (Northern CA, 2018) not to lose far more people than 85. Without the extraordinary efforts of rescuers, professional and casual, it would have been so much worse.
I was scanning and relaying information from a neighboring town when Paradise burned. I never want to hear that sort of dread and hopeless panic ever again; the ability of law enforcment and fire rescue personnel to function despite it all is what saved lives.
Be prepared even for the unlikely, and always have a plan.
I vaguely remember learning about this back in middle or high school
I grew up in Madison, about 2½ hours southwest of Peshtigo. It's interesting that I also learned of the Chicago fire but never was I taught they occurred on the same day. That's wild! 🤯🤯🤯
I grew up in Northeast Wisconsin and in Elementary school every year we would learn about it and take a field trip to the little fire museum in Peshtigo itself.
@@travismiller4320 That's awesome! I want to check it out now myself... 🙂
@@travismiller4320 - West Central Wisconsin for me....but i don't remember learning about this.
Southwest Wisconsin here. We learned about it in 4th grade. The whole year the history units were about state history.
Same, I grew up in WI and when it came time to learn about the Chicago fire, our teacher told us to close our books because we were learning about the Peshtigo fire instead.
Thank you for covering this disaster with your usual class and grace, and thank you for pronouncing Peshtigo correctly (I'm originally from northeast Wisconsin, and it drives me batty when people pronounce it as 'pesh-TEE-go')!! Notably, the drought was widespread, as was the cold front that generated the gale-force winds that blew the fire into a monster, and there were also devastating fires across the lake in Michigan on the same day. Nothing was learned from this fire in regards to lumber practices, and Wisconsin's forests experienced devastating fires for decades after Peshtigo before changes were finally implemented.
One problem with identifying the number of people killed by the Peshtigo Fire was that in many places the fire burned as hot or hotter than a crematorium- many people were completely incinerated. The death toll ranges anywhere from ~1500 to over 2500, making it one of the deadliest wildfires not just in the US but in all of recorded history, and there were so many people in the woods in smaller communities or isolated homesteads who died that even trying to use records from the towns that were destroyed isn't super useful. There is also a mass grave of ~350 bodies in Peshtigo near the museum. No one left alive could identify them, so they were all buried together. There are other mass graves across the region, and some are still being discovered, so it's likely we will never know the true human cost of the fire.
There are many other horrifying stories from the fire. A large hotel had just been built in Peshtigo, and when the fire struck many people, for whatever reason, fled into the hotel. It was timber construction like everything else in the town, and within seconds it went up like a tinderbox, trapping all those people inside. There was also a bridge across the river, and many people fled for the bridge, hoping that the river would prove a natual firebreak and that they would be safe on the other side. Unfortunately, the fire-generated wind blasted embers and sparks far ahead of the main fire front, and within moments the bridge was blazing at both ends, trapping scores of people in the middle. They were left with no choice but to leap over the side of the bridge and plunge into the frigid water. Many of those people drowned or died of hypothermia, and anyone who couldn't get off the bridge burned.
There are also accounts of how the wind was so fierce it seemed to snatch people off the street and suck them into the fire (there are similar stories from the bombing of Dresden during WWII, which was one of the bombing campaigns that used information from Peshtigo). There is some evidence that an actual fire tornado possibly formed near Peshtigo, too, which only increased the fire's destructive power.
This reads like an Australian bushfire like it really is. Gives me trauma flashbacks.
California fires burn like this too. Drought + Santa Anna winds= firestorm
My mom grew up in Peshtigo and I’ve visited family there multiple times in my life. I have visited the fire museum, so I’ve known about this for a long time. Great to see it covered here.
Peshtigo is a couple hours south of me (or a short drive north of Green Bay) and they have a wonderful museum dedicated to the history of the fire. It used to be that the main highway traveled right through town but when it was upgraded, it bypasses the town so you have to take a short detour to visit. The smaller but more famous Chicago fire is remembered, but this catastrophe has faded from memory unless you live in the area. Thank you for featuring this story.
Or you study infamous wildfires. This fire and the big burn of 1910 really changed things
This year el niño phenomenon is expected, the hottest year. I can only immagine the magnitude of forest fires this year.
As a native of Wisconsin, we learn about this during state history units, as young as 4th grade.
That was very well done. We who were born there or in the Marinette area have a reverence for this event. Not because we care about it's unpopularity compared to Chicago so much, but because it was so terrible that we knew we could never let that happen again. And so we all grew up with this knowledge in our bones. People were simply nonchalant with fire then...father Pernin has an amazing read on the entire event. It should be free online to read. Really puts you in their shoes that awful night.
You are a natural story teller, you never disapoint !!!!!!!🙂🇬🇧
I love how peoples’ descriptions of events back then read like poetry😅. They could be describing something as mundane as waking up and going for breakfast and realizing they are out of cereal, ‘I woketh from a great slumber and as if summoned by an enchantress whispering from the morns soft dewy light, drifted to me breakfast chamber and findeth, lo, but a sundry bit of grain scattered about the bottoms of me cereal pot’
Haha, you're a poet too, and just didn't know it.
That was quite droll...and accurate, too. Civil War accounts of simply hauling a chamber pot out of a tent are pure poetry...
To be fair, these descriptions are made after the event took place, allowing for more time to reflect on the event and come up with better ways to describe it.
Ayo, Wisconsin gang getting some representation! Great video as always! ❤️
I always feel so terrible for the animals in these massive fires but in this case I feel for the humans as well. The absolute terror!!
I lived in Wisconsin for 9 years, I knew the name Peshtigo sounded familiar.
I had heard about this, but only briefly, not all these details. This is an example of nature at its worst. Everything was working against the people on this day. It shows the strength of a community though, because they rebuilt and are now thriving.
Congratulations on passing 1,000,000 subscribers! Yay! I've been watching that number go up, keeping a specially close eye on it the last few weeks. This is a fantastic channel. You deserve the recognition. 👍
I live in northern Illinois and have never heard this story. We learn about the Chicago fire, so thanks for sharing.
I was about to make a comment asking about if the Big Burn was actually more severe, especially in response to your statement at 0:43. I abandoned it for 2 reasons: death toll and the difference between forest fire and wildfire (yes, surprisingly, there is a difference between the two words). But yeah, the Big Burn did have more land affected than this fire, as well as it changed how we approached wildfires and preservation efforts. It’d be a good topic to cover, especially to represent the Pacific Northwest. I LOVE your videos!
My father was born and raised in Peshtigo, and a couple of my ancestors survived the fire by immersing themselves in a shallow tributary of the Peshtigo River and breathing through reeds.
People taking shelter behind large rocks; some survived, while others only a few feet away were turned to piles of dust because their bones had been calcined.
A ferry boat in the Green Bay attempted to pick up people on the beaches, but was forced to anchor a mile offshore while they put out fires on the ship from burning tree branches that fell on the decks most of the night.
Truly a horrible evening.
This happened very close to my great-grandparents homestead. I grew up hearing stories about the “Great Fire”. They lived in Oconto County.
I have lived in Wisconsin my entire life and it is so unbelievably sad that so many people do not know about this tragedy! The museum is on my list of places I want to visit . Thank you Fascinating Horrors for making a video about this. I pray all the souls who lost their lives in this absolutely horrific event are resting in peace. I truly cannot fathom the utter fear they must have felt. 😢
This channel deserves ALL the RECOGNITION 🙏👍🏾❤️💙🔥👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾🥇
Thank you for covering the Peshtigo fire. As a native of Wisconsin, we learned about it in school, but outside of Wisconsin, I doubt it’s even discussed as it’s overshadowed by the Chicago fire.
The storm the fire created reminds me of the fires in Santa Rosa, California. One of my college besties and her husband literally lost everything, including their cats, when it came to their area in the middle of the night. They had to jump into their pool with a sheet and hide there all night to survive.
It’s so cool you talked about this! My family has a long history in Peshtigo. All the houses there have metal roofs as a fire prevention measure.
Awesome cover of one of our lesser known tragedies, thanks for giving us Wisconsinites some love! Oh yeah, the Peshtigo River has some amazing fishing action too!
This is my hometown. Thanks for covering this.
I've always said this is the most underrated channel on RUclips. I always feel like I'm watching a professional Hollywood documentary production with this channel. It's incredible work, congrats on 1M!
Happy Tuesday
A bit baffling how little-known this is. I mean, between Peshtigo being (nowadays) a tiny little hamlet, and the coincidence that it happened on the same day as the much more famous Chicago Fire, I can see it not being all that well-known outside of Wisconsin or the midwest.
The surprising part to me is that, even locally, it's not really ever talked about. Peshtigo is only about an hour north of Green Bay, and yet I had never heard of it until recently despite having lived in Northeast Wisconsin (mainly Appleton and Green Bay) my entire life.
I've been in the Fox Valley for 35 years now and I keep meaning to spend time in Peshtigo at the museum but I haven't done it yet....I read a book from the Kaukauna library that talked about both fires...Peshtigo never got huge so you can still relate to some of the streets, etc.
I knew there had been a fire in Peshtigo but was unaware of the details. As usual you presented the facts without any sensational drama. I'm happy to see you have reached a million subscribers and I'm looking forward to more informative videos to come.
In Wisconsin we learn about this fire in Elementary school. The most likely cause we were taught was railroad contractors burning slash (stumps, brush, and trees) along right of ways. Apparently the railroads were notorious for starting large unattended fires with no regard for what they burned, and there had been several documented smaller cases of this earlier that year.
Thank you for covering the Peshtigo Fire! We live in Wisconsin (not far from Peshtigo) and not many people outside of the state know about this disaster.
Thank you for posting this. O believe I requested you post this video. Thank you for your efforts!!!!
It sounds like there was a whole team of us encouraging a video detailing the events in Peshtigo!!
1. Love this channel ☺️
2. Love HOW you cover the material (detail, succinct, honest, with survivor accounts, respect, but no needless endless list of hyperbolic adjectives).
3. If you cover fires, and happen to have time, The Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 is another interesting one I'd love to see.
4. Congrats on the 1 mill!!!
Thanks for bringing light to this. This horrific disaster was always left in the shadow of the great Chicago fire.
Hey I'm another Wisconsinite, I see you have a couple of us now! Thanks for telling this story. I'm pretty sure you got everything I was thinking " I wonder if he will mention ____." Good job as always.
Thank you!!! As a wisconsin native, aware of this history, the fact that you covered this is super meaningful.
I'm from Wisconsin, and have read about this many times. There's a fire museum in Peshtigo that's fantastic.
I just want to say thank you! Your channel is the best for historic events. You deserve every subscriber. I'll be around for 2 million!
My mom is originally from Peshtigo, so we used to travel up there several times a year to visit family. Very few outside the state know about the Peshtigo fire, so thank you so much for covering it here!
Well done on your excellent videos. They are well researched, easy to understand, good use of photographs and maps and above all respectful to the victims.
I remember reading about a incident during this fire where a man was running with his wife in his arms and he bumped into somebody and then he picked up what he thought was his wife only to get to the river and realize it was a completely different woman. Of course his wife was dead, a blackened corpse in the middle of the town. By the time he realized his mistake.
☹️☹️☹️
😭
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Did he bag the new woman tho
Congratulations on 1 million subs! I watch you weekly. Your storytelling ability is so awesome. Keepdkingwhat you do.
Congratulations on a million 🎉
Well deserved, from the way you upload different types of incidents, being respectful to those unlucky and mentioning their stories from their perspective and sometimes mentioning them all name by name aswell as the great way you communicated with us on your sponsorship and of course the cute little crow.
I have been through Peshtigo many times. I have been through an area burned over in 1928. We followed old log drag trails to the head waters of the Yellow Dog River. The small lake was hip deep in yellow mud. We recovered a few items from a burned-out cabin. Round trip distance on foot was 30 miles from our drop off point. Our Guide later became Mayor of Marquette Michigan.
Excellent and interesting video as always. Congratulations on the milestone of one million subscribers. I look forward to seeing more of your enlightening content.
It amazes me that I grew up in Colorado with near-annual massive wildfires and eventually spent plenty of time studying disaster geography in college and still have not heard of this.
Thanks for talking about this event. I'm from a neighboring state and travel to Wisconsin often. The NE part of the state is beautiful, especially in summer and autumn. The Peshtigo Fire Museum is absolutely worth stopping at if you are ever in the area.
Always on point.
There are still trees growing with char marks on the stump from this fire. Really moist days in the old growth areas you can still smell the ash. It also skipped the bay and lit Door County WI on fire too...
Great video, I'm glad you cover little known and obscure events, they're interesting. I grew up just down the road from Peshtigo. There are a couple historical signs that mention the fire but not much detail. There's a museum but having passed through the town at least once a week for 15+ years I couldn't tell you where it is. Its not really talked about anymore, even in schools.
Great! I've suggested covering this on several channels, because it feels so unfair that this catastrophe is so overshadowed by the Chicago one.
Congratulations on 1 million subscribers, It's always great to learn something new for sure.
My grandmother grew up in Peshtigo. Being born in 1938 she obviously never witnessed the fire but heard first hand accounts from people who had actually witnessed it.
It had a lasting impact on her as the majority of her nightmares involved fire, be it her house or being caught out in the forest.
A similar story with an added dramatic train rescue is the Great Hinckley Fire in 1894 Minnesota.
The connection between firestorms and firebombing is interesting (and sad).
Bro. You are awesome. Been enjoying your work for two years now I believe? And it just keeps getting better. I love History. And you bring a unique take on a certain kind of it, we need never to forget. THANK YOU AND CONGRATULATIONS ON 1MILL SUBS !! 🥳
Congratulations for 1m subs! Well deserved, love your videos.
An often forgotten about tragedy , great video mate
I have lots of family in Wisconsin, and one summer, we visited the Peshtigo Fire Museum and nearby wood museum. I had never heard of this at the time! Thank you for sharing with a wider audience!
This channel has had a great impact on the level of care I conduct myself with as a technician over the years. Great video, very well done.
I love history of any kind. Very interesting.
This fire was my case study for fire behavior class.
I also live near peshtigo. A few things, many people were incinerated instantly from the fire. Some took shelter in ponds and the ponds were vaporized. A priest has an interesting account of how many took shelter in the stone church and prayed. Miraculously, they survived but the church bell was melted in the steeple.