Hump Day History


 Lithograph from Currier & Ives of the Great Chicago Fire, 1871.

There were 37 fires in the Great Lakes region that day.  300 died in Chicago.

The Great Michigan Fire (in Manastee) took the lives of closer to 500 people, while the Peshtigo Fire killed at least 1,200.  It remains history's deadliest fire.


What started the fires is unknown, but it had been a dry summer, and the winds from the front that moved in were more than enough to spread whatever was ignited.

One theory from Chicago blamed Mrs. O'Leary's Cow.



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