Peshtigo

Some eyewitnesses have called it a "hurricane of fire," one of the most devastating series of brushfires ever. On October 8, 1871, cataclysmic wildfires charred nearly four million acres of land on both sides of Northern Wisconsin's Green Bay. The fires jumped the Menominee River and headed north into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The speed and ferocity of the firestorm became apparent just hours after the blazes first blew into the region. Entire towns were obliterated, reduced to ashes and cinders. Farms and fields were blackened. More than 1,800 hundred people were killed in Wisconsin, including half the population of Peshtigo. Another 200 Michigan residents died in the devastating blazes. It remains the largest loss of life from fire in U.S. history. Still, the story of Peshtigo is unknown to many, as it occurred on the same day of the Great Chicago Fire. This historical novel is the story of the people around Peshtigo, some of whom survived the inferno and some who perished.