Great Day of Fire

Background Notes…

Most people are familiar with the legend of how Mrs. O’Leary’s cow kicked over a lantern in the barn and started the entire town of Chicago on fire in October, 1871. Upwards of 300 people lost their lives and the city of Chicago, an important industrial and commerce center, was paralyzed.

But what not everyone knows is that equally catastrophic fires took place in Peshtigo, WI and throughout the state of Michigan on the same day. The most significant fires in Michigan were located in Port Huron on the eastern side of the state and Holland and Manistee on the Lake Michigan shoreline, with several lesser fires erupting in forested areas throughout the mid-section of the state.

While Mrs. O ‘Leary’s cow has for years been the scapegoat for the Chicago fire, there are no colorful tales as to how the fires in these other areas were started. Although the entire region was suffering from a severe dry spell that autumn, it is coincidental for so many large-scale fires to have broken out literally within hours of each other, for the most part without plausible explanation. One theory suggest that a meteor shower rained down burning astroids in a “V” shaped pattern, the cortex being Port Huron, MI, and then fanning out toward Chicago, IL and Peshtigo, WI. This theory actually makes a lot of sense and there are several eyewitness accounts in both MI and WI which claim to have seen fire coming from the sky.

The name for this letterbox is taken from both the reference commonly made to that day — the “Day of Fire” and from the popular song title, “Great Balls of Fire.”

To find the box, you must locate the marker shown in this photo, and then follow the clues provided below.

Clues…

You will find the trailhead due east from 140. 8/2=4. At 4, head the opposite direction from the cross. At the next numbered intersection, turn the way where you see a two-track crossing up ahead. When you come to the Eagle’s resting place, begin watching the right side of the trail for a glimpse of a water tower in the distance — if only this had been around in 1871! A faint trail runs through the clearing toward a fence row. Pace along the posts to the SE corner. At 35 degrees find the Great Day of Fire letterbox in a hollow stump.