Scott Knickelbine - The Great Peshtigo Fire: Stories and Science from Americas Deadliest Fire

Published by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press

Publishers since 1855

2012 by State Historical Society of Wisconsin

E-book edition 2012

For permission to reuse material from The Great Peshtigo Fire: Stories and Science from Americas Deadliest Firestorm (ISBN 978-087020-499-9, e-book ISBN 978-0-87020-602-3), please access www.copyright.com or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety of users.

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Designed by Shawn Biner, Biner Design

16 15 14 13 12 1 2 3 4 5

Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Knickelbine, Scott.

The great Peshtigo fire: stories and science from Americas deadliest firestorm / Scott Knickelbine.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-87020-499-9 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Peshtigo (Wis.)History19th centuryJuvenile literature. 2. Peshtigo Region (Wis.) History19th century Juvenile literature. 3. FiresWisconsinPeshtigoHistory19th centuryJuvenile literature. 4. WhirlwindsWisconsinPeshtigoHistory19th centuryJuvenile literature. 5. Forest firesWisconsinPeshtigo RegionHistory19th century Juvenile literature. 6. FiresSocial aspectsWisconsinPeshtigoHistory19th centuryJuvenile literature. I. Title.

F589.P48K58 2012

977.533dc23

2012009085

This book is dedicated to my wife, Jean, who did so much of the work on it.

SLK

Pronunciation Key

: made into a rule or law

: the force of the air in the atmosphere pushing down on the Earth

: made an important request

: a way to measure wood that has been cut into boards. One board foot is the amount of wood in a board that is one foot wide, one foot long, and one inch thick.

: a business that rents out rooms for people to sleep in, usually for several weeks or months

(bril yuhnt lee): very brightly

(kah lam ih tee): a terrible disaster

: the war between the Northern and Southern states (18611865)

: a place in the middle of a forest or woods where there are no trees

: a group of soldiers

(kuhn fed ur it): the Southern states in the Civil War

: completely eaten up or destroyed

(dee lib ur uht lee): on purpose

(eg zaj uh ray tid): made to sound bigger or more important than something really is

(eg zaws chuhn): the feeling of being very tired or worn out

: the burst of flames caused when gases in the air suddenly catch on fire

(fown dreez): factories where metal is melted and poured into molds to make useful objects

(fruhn teer): land at the edge of a settled area where people are just starting to build

: a long look

(huh ri zuhn): the farthest edge of land that you can see

: a huge storm, often hundreds of miles across, that spins around a center point, called the eye

: short standing metal pipes with caps on the top, which let firefighters get water from underground water pipes

(im uh gruhnts): people who come into a country or region to live there

: the production of all kinds of goods, especially in factories or plants, or a kind of business that makes a particular product

: an area where the air is not pressing down on the surface of the Earth as hard as it is in the areas around it

(muh jes tik): very big and awesome

: a place where many people are buried in the same hole in the ground

(muh nah muh nee): an Indian tribe living in northeastern Wisconsin

(mee tee urz): Balls of rock and ice that burn up as they fall from outer space to Earth

(o jib way): One of the largest Indian tribes, living in many areas of the northern United States and southern Canada.

(ok suh juhn): one of the gases that make up the air we breathe

: round pieces of metal that are powered by the force of hot gasses, steam, or liquid to make the parts of an engine move

(rez ur vay shuhn): an area of land set aside by the US government for an Indian tribe to live on

: people who live in a place

: a place where fresh water comes up out of the ground

: getting its energy or motion from steam

: a small business that sells food and drink

(tel uh graf): a form of communication that uses electrical signals sent through wires

: moving around wildly

: not said to belong to anyone

(yoo nyuhn): the Northern states in the Civil War

(uhn ree zuhn uh buhl): not showing good sense

The Great Peshtigo Fire

Stories and Science from Americas Deadliest Firestorm

SCOTT KNICKELBINE

Wisconsin Historical Society Press

This index points you to the pages where you can read about persons, places, and ideas. If you do not find the word you are looking for, try to think of another word that means about the same thing.

When you see a page number in bold it means there is a picture on that page.

A

air pressure,

B

baby,

Bakeman family,

barge,

bear,

bible,

Big Blowup,

blacksmith,

C

Capitan Mountains, New Mexico,

Chicago Fire,

Chicago Junior Fire Department,

Civil War,

Coolidge, Calvin,