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Peshtigo, Wisconsin is home to the Peshtigo Fire Museum. The great Peshtigo fire happened back in 1871 on October 8. The Peshtigo fire was lost for a time in our history due to that the Chicago fire happend on the same day. Even though the Peshtigo fire had many more casualties than the Chicago fire and also had much more damage to the town.
The Peshtigo fire took eight hundred lives that horrible day back in October 8, 1871. The whole town of Peshtigo that was once a booming logging town was burnt to just ashes. The fire started easily because that year back in 1871 it was a very hot summer and that year they only got rain a couple of times. There were a bunch of little fires that
sprang up that when combined they formed a monestrous fire that was out of control before anybody could stop its destruction.
Alot of people died from the deathly smoke that the Peshtigo fire created. There was such mass confusion among the people. The people who had to deal with the Peshtigo fire were blinded from the smoke. They couldn’t tell where they were or what direction they had to go to get to the Peshtigo River which was where people headed to find safety from the fire.
While in the Peshtigo Museum you get told of some tragic stories that took place that horrible day back in 1871. These are some of the stories told while in the Peshtigo Fire Museum. A man dragged his wife to safety to the Peshtigo River only to have her body lay lifeless, women running around with their long hair in flames and a man who dragged a women to the Peshtigo River thinking it was his wife only to find out the women he
dragged wasn’t his wife at all. There were so many screams heard from people before the fire took their lives. There were occurances of people actually killing themselves and their families because they knew that the fire was going to end up taking their lives.
Some people who made it through the fire ended up dying from shock and fever. But even after going through all of this the survivors of the Peshtigo fire rebuilt their town proudly.
The Peshtigo Fire Museum is in the first church that was built after the October 8, 1871 fire. It’s open Memorial day through October 8. The hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.. The museum is free though donations are welcome. The museum holds some items that were found after the fire. It also has exhibits and items pertaining to that era in our
history.
The first thing you see as you enter the museum is a huge painting of the people in the Peshtigo River during the Peshtigo fire. The picture is complete with people and animals in the river. In the painting you can see what the devastation the people of peshtigo went through that tragic day and from the painting you can tell what the people's faces would have looked like that dreaded day.
The museum has an original Bible that was in the Peshtigo fire where you can actually see burnt pages with the Bible's original wording still on it.
There’s a grocery store exhibit in the museum. It’s set up the way a grocery store would have looked back in 1871. It’s complete with product boxes and what the prices were back then. It also is setup with a store keeper, register and how they sliced meat back then.
There’s an exhibit of a bedroom which has clothing and furniture from the 1870’s. They have all kinds of antiques such as dishes, beds, coutches, irons, stoves and butter churns. This is just some examples there are many more items in the muesum to be
seen.
There’s an exhibit of a women who survived that horrible fire. It has her original wedding dress. There’s also an interesting story about her. She tied her wedding ring in her shawl so she wouldn’t loose it. She ended up dropping her shawl in the fire.
Miracously, she found her shawl after the fire. The shawl was burnt up except where she had tied the ring to it. The ring was not damaged and is displayed in the museum.
The Peshtigo Fire Museum has antique baby carriages, dolls and doll clothes.
Next to the museum is the Peshtigo Fire Cemetary which has graves of people who lost their lives in the Peshtigo fire of 1871. There’s a mass grave which is a grave that has the remains of hundreds of people who were burnt so badly they couldn’t be identified.
There’s also a monument there in memory of the eight hundred people who lost their lives that faitful day back in 1871. Going here brings back the reality of what a devastation the fire actually was and the lives that were taken. It’s really sad to see the graves of the people taken that day especially the graves of the babies and children.
If you ever get to be around the town of Peshtigo. I suggest that you go and explore the Peshtigo museum because it contains a tragic part of our history with the Peshtigo fire and also contains numerous items which take us back to the days of yesterday.
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