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Jul 12, 2022 · Courtesy Photo The devastation of a fire in 1872 in Alpena is seen in this 150-year-old photo. The fire consumed 15 acres of property and 75 buildings burned. Four people were killed and two ...
Apr 29, 2023 · On Wednesday, April 25, 1923, the Steamer Wyandotte went aground in the mouth of the Thunder Bay River, having run onto a debris bar that had been washed into the navigation channel by the flood ...
The Meridian Boundary Fire burned 8,586 acres near Grayling, Michigan in 2010.. The U.S. state of Michigan has been the site of several major wildfires.The worst of these were in the lumbering era of the late-1800s when lumbering practices permitted the buildup of large slash piles and altered forest growth patterns which may have contributed to size of the wildfires.
- 1871 Fire Map
- Great Michigan Fire
- Manistee Fire
- Or Was It?
- New Scene of Danger
- From A Witness
- Wooden Buildings
- Holland Fire
- Port Huron Fire
- The Aftermath of The Great Fires of 1871
In the map below the 37 individual fire areas can be grouped into five major fires that burned in the Great Lakes Region. The Great Chicago Fire, The Great Peshtigo Fire, the Port Huron Fire, Holland Fire, and the Manistee Fire. All the towns that burned in Michigan are called the Great Michigan Fire of 1871.
Logging was a major industry in Michigan in the 1800’s, as trees were harvested and sent to the mills, branches, bark, and unused wood was left behind. The summer of 1871 had not had rain for months, the land was dry, and the vegetation and logging debris became fuel for the fires. The gale force winds created a wall of flames from hundreds of smal...
At 9am that Sunday morning the fire alarms sounded, and the fire department rode the steamer to the Gifford and Ruddock’s Mills area. They found the twenty-acre tract of dead hemlock forest ablaze and threatening that part of the town. The fire department fought the fire all day and it was finally subdued, and the town was saved.
While the fire was raging an alarm whistle was blown on the east side of Manistee Lake about 2pm. The steam mill of Magill & Canfield on Blackbird Island was in flames. The mill, boarding house, stables, shops, docks, and lumber did not stand a chance, it was a total loss. As the night grew a light was seen in the southwest on the shore of Lake Mic...
From the south, directly in the back of the town a fierce wind was sending the fire toward the city. Many farms were on that side of town and were destroyed as the fire made it way and then divided into 2 columns. One staying on the lake shore and coming in at the mouth and the other heading northeasterly arriving directly south of town. Many tried...
Bryon M. Cutcheon, a reporter who lived in Manistee and witnessed the fire wrote “From Fifth Street, half of a mile south of the river, to Cushman & Calkins’ mill, half a mile north of the bridge, and from the foot of Oak Street eastward to Tyson & Robinson’s mill, at the outlet of Manistee Lake, three-fourths of a mile, was one surging sea of fire...
The city was built from the lumber they harvested, and building were burned to the ground. Over a thousand people were homeless, many penniless. They took refuge on vessels, tugs, boats, and barges. As the sun rose on Monday and the destruction could be seen it was a staggering blow. But as was common with small communities everyone banded together...
The fire started on the southern part of the town. As the winds increase there was no hope of saving the town as buildings on the towns western edge caught fire. One resident commented that “The entire territory covered by the fire was mowed as clean as with a reaper; there was not a fence post or a sidewalk plank, and hardly a stump of a shade tre...
As the fires burned in Holland and Manistee it skipped over to the east side of the state only to be stopped by Lake Huron’s shore. The winds brought the embers and smoke from the west. In just over 30 hours the fires that started in Manistee found its way through Grayling and Big Rapids. It swept through Isabelle, Midland and Bay counties and was ...
That fire that raged across 2.25 million acres of the upper Midwest destroying at least 4 billion feet of prime timber. At least 1,200 lives were lost, including approximately 800 in Peshtigo alone. In Chicago, the loss of live was 300 and almost 20% of the residents were left homeless. Four square miles were completed leveled including the busines...
Aug 25, 2020 · Courtesy Photo A large fire at Alro Steel in 2005, seen from the 9th Avenue bridge in this photo, destroyed four businesses and could be seen from miles away. ALPENA — On the night of Oct. 5 ...
Alpena, population of 6,859, suffers $95,000 loss. Cheboygan, population of 6,849, is threatened, though in no immediate danger. Millersburg and LaRocque, two villages half way between Cheboygan and Alpena, have been destroyed, according to the latest reports.
Feb 28, 2024 · The transmitter building for WCMU's signals in northeast Lower Michigan burned on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. Our transmitter building is a total loss. WCML-FM 91.7 and WCML-TV Channel 6, both licensed to the city of Alpena and broadcast from Atlanta, MI, will be off the air indefinitely.
