Highlights Archives
Spreading Like Wildfire: Wisconsin's Forest Fires
It is shaping up to be another hot, dry summer in Wisconsin, creating challenges for farmers and threatening many areas with fire. Northern Wisconsin has received less than half its normal rainfall, and rain amounts have been below normal across much of the rest of the state. The risks posed by hot and dry conditions have been a recurring event in Wisconsin history, as drought and fire go hand in hand.
Although 1871 was Wisconsin's worst year for forest fires, extensive fires have scorched the state's landscape in almost every decade of the 19th and 20th centuries. The most serious disasters, however, occurred between 1847 and 1899 when rapid settlement far outran the development of controls and safety measures.
One of the first recorded wildfires tore through northern Wisconsin in 1854, running 140 miles from Amery to Iron River. The single deadliest fire in state history happened on October 8, 1871, when a massive fire burned portions of eight northeastern counties, obliterating the towns of Peshtigo and Brussels and killing around 1,500 people. The Reverend Peter Pernin witnessed the fire firsthand and wrote about his experiences, which you can read in The Great Peshtigo Fire, a book from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press.
Although the Peshtigo fire devastated the region, most of the world outside northern Wisconsin was reading about another destructive fire that had stolen the headlines: the Great Chicago Fire. Disaster struck the north again in 1894 when forest fires around Phillips in Pierce County burned more than 100,000 acres, destroyed 400 homes, and killed 20 people. In 1898 steamboat captain and lumber foreman John L. Bracklin survived a close call with a forest fire that he recalled in a letter published in 1917.
Things began to look up in 1905 when the state appointed 249 town fire wardens with the power to hire firefighters. Unfortunately, the state failed to provide any equipment. Fire protection did improve over the following years, however. In the fall of 1908, when forest fires had broken out over a wide swath of northern Wisconsin, fire marshals and the Wisconsin State Forestry Department rendered efficient aid in containing the blaze. The first forest rangers were hired in 1911, and a forest protection headquarters was established at Trout Lake. In 1915 Jack Vilas piloted the first fire patrol above Trout Lake, spotting fires from the air for the first time in state history. Through the end of the 1920s, lookout towers and ranger stations sprang up around the state as fire protection became more organized.
Despite these new protections, fire remained a constant threat, particularly as record high temperatures and periods of drought were set in the 20th century. During the years of the dust bowl, 1930 to 1936, severe drought ravaged the state and roughly 2,950 fires burned annually. Wisconsin also experienced its highest recorded temperature, 114 degrees, set on July 13, 1936, at Wisconsin Dells. Drought and fire continued to threaten Wisconsin at least once a decade throughout the remainder of the 20th century. Fires were particularly bad in 1977 when a second year of severe drought led to destructive fires in Wisconsin Rapids, Black River Falls, and in Washburn and Douglas Counties.
So take care this summer because responsible burning and care are essential to Wisconsin's fire protection — or let Smokey remind you. You can learn more about early firefighting in one Wisconsin city this summer by visiting the Wisconsin Historical Museum's exhibit We Hurry to the Rescue: The Early Years of Madison Firefighting.
:: Posted August 11, 2006
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