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Peshtigo Fire Museum

1963 establishments in WisconsinFirefighting in WisconsinFirefighting memorialsFirefighting museums in the United StatesHistory museums in Wisconsin
Museums established in 1963Museums in Marinette County, Wisconsin
PeshtigoFireMuseumExterior2
PeshtigoFireMuseumExterior2

The Peshtigo Fire Museum preserves the heritage of the Peshtigo Fire, which destroyed the city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and surrounding area on October 8, 1871, killing over 2,000 people. It hosts storytelling, exhibits of artifacts from the fire, displays of the lifestyle at the time of the disaster, and a cemetery to memorialize those who died. The museum is adjacent to the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery, where the charred remains of over 350 people were buried in a mass grave. The cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The memorial at the cemetery was the first official state historical marker authorized by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Peshtigo Fire Museum (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Peshtigo Fire Museum
Oconto Avenue, Town of Peshtigo

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N 45.055867 ° E -87.753372 °
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Peshtigo Fire Museum

Oconto Avenue
54157 Town of Peshtigo
Wisconsin, United States
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peshtigofiremuseum.com

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Peshtigo fire
Peshtigo fire

The Peshtigo fire was a large forest fire on October 8, 1871, in northeastern Wisconsin, United States, including much of the southern half of the Door Peninsula and adjacent parts of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The largest community in the affected area was Peshtigo, Wisconsin, which had a population of approximately 1,700 residents. The fire burned about 1.2 million acres and is the deadliest wildfire in recorded history, with the number of deaths estimated between 1,500 and 2,500. Although the exact number of deaths is debated, mass graves, both those already exhumed and those still being discovered, in Peshtigo and the surrounding areas show that the death toll of the blaze was most likely greater than the 1889 Johnstown flood death toll of 2,200 people or more.Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo fire has been largely forgotten, even though it killed five times as many people. "Everybody's heard about the Chicago fire, and that got all the publicity at the time," said a volunteer at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, named Ruth Wiltzius, whose great-grandfather perished while trying to escape. "Peshtigo was a backwards lumber town then—who had ever heard of it? Chicago was the big city. Which one was going to get more attention?"Nonetheless, several cities in Michigan, including Holland and Manistee (across Lake Michigan from Peshtigo) and Port Huron (at the southern end of Lake Huron), also had major fires on the same day. These fires, along with many other fires of the 19th century had the same basic causes: small fires coupled with unusually dry weather.