Fire is a good BBQ pit topic for flames, right? Pardon the pun.
Most people have heard of the great fire of Chicago on October 8, 1871, but most people don’t know that a much worse fire happened the same day in Peshtigo, Wisconsin (in NE Wisconsin between Green Bay and Upper Michigan). The Chicago fire is blamed for 250 deaths, but 1,150 people perished in Peshtigo, the most ever in an American fire.
This is an example of how the big city of Chicago gets so much attention compared to the neighboring States and their smaller cities. It’s time this injustice was stopped. From now on forget about the Chicago fire and remember the Peshtigo fire as the worst fire tradgedy in America. Remember the Alamo! Remember the Peshtigo!
While researching these fires, I noticed an interesting theory: Did a Comet Cause the Fires in Peshtigo and Chicago? Maybe Mrs. O’Leary’s cow had nothing to do with it: http://vm.nmu.edu/~jbiehl/http/peshtigo/theory.html
If you’re looking for ignition sources the meteor or cow might be prime suspects. If you’re looking for the cause, you don’t have to look any further than the weather.
The fires would have probably swept through that region at that time whether people were living there or not. Tinderboxes have a way of going up in flames with the smallest provocation.
I don’t think anyone has suggested that a single ignition point was resposable for all the fires that day.
I read a book called “Inferno” several years ago. You’d have liked it. It spent at least as much verbage on the Wisc. fires as it did the one in Chicago.
One P.R. suggestion though. If you can track the Peshtigo fire back to Mrs. O’Leary’s meteor you might at last garner some well deserved attention for that event!
I saw a program about these tragedies on the History Channel a while ago (one of the non-WWII programs, obviously) that said the fires started out as man-made brush fires that went out of control because of the weather. Did “Inferno” touch on this theory?
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
I have a recollection of some of the fires being started by men clearing brush for the railroad or maybe crop land. I read the book two moves ago, so it may take me a while to locate it.
Don’t forget that Door County got hit with fires at the same time as Peshtigo and Chicago, along with some other places in the midwest, which might lend credence to the idea that a meteor broke up on that day and started them all.
I think Cheese wanted someone (preferably someone from Illinois such as myself) to say “HA - those cheeseheads crying in their beer! People who died in the Peshtigo fire were never as important as the denizens of the windy city, and so truly deserve to be forgotten.”
You said it Nick. Some other peeves of mine about Chicago and Illinois:
-Toll roads. Whenever I drive there, I have to stop and put change in the Illinois coffers.
-License plates. The neighboring states now all have colorful designs on their plates, but Illinios is still bland. Also, Illinois vanity plates require a number at the end. So, you see lots of plates like ‘Nick 2’, and ‘Nick 3’. It’s hard to be creative when a number is required at the end.
Well I’mnot gonna get into this Chicago fire debate. Suffice to say that Chicago deserves the press, the other one horse town I can’t even pronounce.
Now about the liscence plates. In Ill. you can have Personalized plates which are $11, and require that you have a series of letters followed by numbers. You must have at least one of each, they cannot me mixed, and letters must come first. Then you can get a Vanity plate which costs $100, and require only letters be used. These prices are from 6 years ago so they may have changed. As for why the price diference, and strict format requirements, you’ve got me?
Another thing, you can get designer plates, but they are all more expensive and are fund raisers. The plain plates are great with me, I’d rather you notice the car, not the artwork on the plate. Remember those old maroon Missouri plates? Some of the other plate available: The one with a cardinal is gotten by making a donation to some kind of environmental agency I think. There are ones for each of the State universities that you get by donating to the Alumni association. There are also ones commemorating armed service veterans. Basically if you want a fancy plate, you gotta pay for it, but at least the money goes to some “worthy cause”, supposedly anyways.
Well, here we are in the BBQ Pit and all dis talking about Peshtigo and fires ‘s got me longin’ for an old fashioned trout boil. Or maybe some smoked sturgeon.
Dem sturgeon, dem’s good for smokin’ ya know. Cripes ja! Hey?
