The Great Fire (of Chicago) overshadowed another huge blaze at the same time. On October 8, 1871, the most devastating forest fire in American history swept through northeast Wisconsin. Apparently, railroad workers clearing land for tracks started a brush fire that soon became an inferno. Peshtigo, Wisconsin, a lumber town not far from Green Bay, was devastated along with sixteen other towns and 1.25 million acres of surrounding forest. Nearly 1,200 people died. There are several books, etc. available about the Peshtigo Fire. One is "The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account" by Reverend Peter Pernin. You can view this at http://www.library.wisc.edu/etext Another is "Fire at Peshtigo" by Robert W. Wells written in 1968. A third is "Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History" by Denise Gess and William Lutz. This was just published in 2003. My 2nd great granduncle Thomas Hawley was the Captain of the Steamboat Union and rescued around 300 people from the Peshtigo area during the fire. When he arrived in Green Bay, he reported what was happening at Peshtigo, which was the first that people knew about the fire at Peshtigo and diverted their attention from the Chicago fire that was taking place at the same time. I have several other relatives who escaped the fire when it hit Birch Creek, MI. If anyone is interested in this area, the above books are very good and cover much detail. Sandra Hawley