Peshtigo Fire Presentation Wraps Heritage Village Season

Sep 29, 2013 9:13 AM

DoorCountyDailyNews.com

Heritage Village at Big Creek will wrap up its series of Door County historical presentations for the season onSunday, October 6, when Barb Chisholm discusses the history and legacy of one of the most devastating fires in Wisconsin history—the Peshtigo Fire. The presentation will take place Sunday, October 6 at 2:00 p.m. at the Village’s Collins Center.

The Peshtigo Fire was a forest fires that took place on October 8, 1871 in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. The event is actually referred to as a firestorm, which is a fire that attains such intensity that it creates and sustains its own wind system. The fire caused the most deaths by fire in United States history, killing as many as 1,500 people—and some say that the number might actually be closer to 2,500—as well as destroying over 1.5 million acres of land. The fire was so intense that it jumped several miles over the waters of Green Bay and burned parts of the Door Peninsula, as well as jumping the Peshtigo River itself to burn on both sides of the inlet town.

Occurring on the same day as the more famous Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire has been largely forgotten. Barb Chisholm presents this beautiful and emotionally charged program as if she had been there, and what results is a presentation that is not to be missed.

Heritage Village at Big Creek is a non-profit historic village at the intersection of Highway 42/57 and Michigan Street in Sturgeon Bay. Operated by the Door County Historical Society, the village serves as a memorial to the people who lived in rural Door County from 1880 to 1910. For more information on Heritage Village or the Door County Historical Society, please visit www.doorcountyhistoricalsociety.org.