OCLC 52421495.Instead of discovering a land blanketed by dense forests, early explorers of the Pacific Northwest encountered a varied landscape of open woods, spacious meadows, and extensive prairies. Firestorm at Peshtigo: A Town, Its People, and the Deadliest Fire in American History. The Great Chicago Fire and the Myth of Mrs. 2004 Planetary Defense Conference: Protecting Earth from Asteroids. Did Biela's Comet Cause the Chicago and Midwest Fires? (PDF). O'Leary's Comet: Cosmic Causes of the Great Chicago Fire. ^ MAJOR POST-LOGGING FIRES IN MICHIGAN: the 1800's.Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press. "The Necessities of the Case': The Response to the Great Thumb Fire of 1881". "Climatic Conditions Preceding Historically Great Fires in the North Central Region" (PDF). No external source of ignition was needed numerous small fires were already burning in the area after a tinder-dry summer and all that was needed to generate the massive blazes in the Midwest were the winds from the front that moved in that evening. Various aspects of the behaviors of the Chicago and Peshtigo fires attributed to extraterrestrial intervention have more mundane explanations. Others dispute this theory, arguing that meteorites in fact are cold to the touch when they reach the Earth's surface, and there are no credible reports of any fire anywhere having been started by a meteorite. The key hypothesis is that methane from the comet provided the fuel for fires across the region to flare out of control. The theory was revived in a 1985 book and investigated in a 2004 paper to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. One speculation, first suggested in 1883, is that the simultaneous fires across the Midwest were caused by the impact of fragments from Comet Biela. In 1871 in Michigan there were hundreds to thousands of lumberjacks and salesmen spread out across the state, along with settlers in remote areas, making it impossible to know the total death toll.īecause the Michigan fires occurred during the day, the estimate of the death toll is lower than the Great Chicago Fire's estimated 250-300 dead. Some estimates put the loss of life at fewer than 500, but they were largely based on families reporting their members missing. Īlso unknown is the total number of human deaths. The extent of property loss, animal deaths, and forest devastation has never been determined. Not only was the land burnt and left barren, thousands of buildings (houses, barns, stores and mills) were destroyed with no lumber left to rebuild. More than 3,900 square miles (2,500,000 acres 1,000,000 ha) were burned in Michigan, including the Menominee County area. In addition to the fires originating in Michigan, the Peshtigo firestorm in Wisconsin crossed the Menominee River and burned in Menominee County, Michigan. These fires were the result of hundreds of smaller land-clearing fires whipped together to form a massive wall of flames by gale force winds. Most areas had had no rain in months, making the dried-up vegetation and logging debris, known as " slash", fuel for the fires. The fires of October 8, 1871, started after a long dry summer. These operations left behind branches, bark and quantities of unused wood. By 1854, sixteen sawmills were in operation, producing over 13,000,000 board feet (30,000 m 3) of lumber. Michigan was extensively logged for the Eastern white pine, measuring 150 feet (46 m) tall and exceeding 5 feet (2 m) in diameter, along with the hardwood forests. In the mid-1830s logging began in Michigan and grew into a significant industry. In 1881, much more than half of " the Thumb" region was burned over by the Thumb Fire, which followed part of the same path as the 1871 fires. The concurrent Peshtigo Fire in Wisconsin also destroyed several towns in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Several cities, towns and villages, including Alpena, Holland, Manistee, and Port Huron, suffered serious damage or were lost. They were possibly caused (or at least reinforced) by the same winds that fanned the Great Chicago Fire, the Peshtigo Fire and the Port Huron Fire some believe lightning or even meteor showers may have started the fires. The Great Michigan Fire was a series of simultaneous forest fires in the state of Michigan in the United States in 1871. JSTOR ( January 2011) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message). Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: "Great Michigan Fire" – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. This article needs additional citations for verification.
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