Today’s Tornado-Like Yet Truly Morbid Fact!
As churchgoers made their way home after evening service on Sunday, October 8, 1871, they commented on the stagnant air that lay over the small village of Peshtigo, Wisconsin. It had been an exceptionally dry summer and for the past three weeks wildfires had been burning sporadically in areas around the village. The air was heavy with smoke.
Sometimes after 8:30 that evening, light, refreshing gusts of wind scuttled dried leaves and dust across the village. Soon after, a faint light appeared on the horizon. This scene quickly changed to a brilliant amber glow punctuated by the roar of an approaching fire.
A tornado-like wind hit Peshtigo, blowing roofs from houses and businesses, followed by the full fury of the fire itself. As sheets of flame leapt over the village, scores of people and animals ran to the Peshtigo River, dodging the flying debris exploding out of the village. Suddenly the bridge gave way and fell into the river, crushing anyone trapped below. In less than an hour the village was annihilated. The survivors had the devastating task of identifying, burying and mourning their lost families and friends while trying to pick up the pieces of their lives in a village that was literally burned off the map.
On October 11, an issue of the Marinette and Peshtigo Eagle Extra carried the story of what has been called the worst natural fire in the history of the United States:
“Standing amid the charred and blackened embers, with the frightfully mutilated corpses of men, women, children, horses, shed, barn, out-house or structure of any kind swept from the earth as with the very besom of destruction, our emotions cannot be described in language.
In the six affected counties, approximately 1,200 deaths were attributed to the fire, but with about 800 dead, Peshtigo had been the hardest hit.
Culled from: Disaster Great Lakes
Of course, the Peshtigo fire happened to occur at the same time as the Great Fire of Chicago, thereby ensuring it would be ignored in history books. I have to get up to the Peshtigo Fire Museum one of these days!
Death Scenes
One of my favorite books is Death Scenes: A Homicide Detective’s Scrapbook. It is exactly what it says it is: a bizarre and oft-disturbing scrapbook collected over the years by Los Angeles area police detective Jack Huddleston, whose career spanned from 1921 to the early 1950’s. Some are the pictures are more amusing than disturbing, such as this collection of some of Jack’s favorite mugshots. This is Part One of a Six Part series. The captions are all Jack’s – you’ll have to ask him why he thought a comma was necessary after the word “by”. Oh, I guess you can’t because Jack is long gone… but thankfully his scrapbook got in the right hands and was saved for all of us to enjoy!
Part Two will be featured in tomorrow’s MFDJ.
Morbid Cake Du Jour!
Sarah! has a morbid cookbook recommendation – and we don’t come across those terribly often!
“I just bought the recipe book of the year: Apocalypse Cakes: Recipes for the End. How can you resist ‘Fallen Angel’s Food Cake,’ ‘Lake of Fire Crème Brûlée,’ and ‘President Palin Half-Baked Alaska’? Clever cakes and anecdotes with morbidly delicious photos. I would expect to find any of these cakes in the Kitchen Despair.”
There’s a blog dedicated to the book too:
Apocalypse Cakes
“Inexplicable Blackbird Pie”