3-034-749 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The great forest fires in America: view near Fox River, 1871. ' The fire was spread by a tornado... The storm...tore along a strip of country in Wisconsin eight or ten miles wide and 140 miles in length...Here, in Oconto county, Wisconsin...1500 men, women, and children were burnt to death...An ominous roaring sound was first heard; then flakes of fire like meteors fell in different parts of the town, igniting whatever they touched. A fierce wind arose, and everything became enveloped in fire, smoke, hot sand, and cinders. Many persons who fled in affright were suffocated and burned before they could advance many steps. The storm lasted only half an hour, but the buildings and the woods burned all night. The forest surrounding the village was in a blaze; and the flames being driven into the village, it presented one mass of fire. The people living close to the river reached it and walked in up to their necks. They remained in the water from two to four hours, and endured the heat only by wetting their heads...Next morning the streets were strewn with burned bodies...Everywhere...the farms, sheds, fences, crops, and cattle, as well as the dwellings, are gone. The people are destitute, and will require full support till another season'. From "Illustrated London News", 1871.