The Miracle of the Fire
Tornadoes of Fire
the 8th of October
In 1871, a firestorm devoured 1.3 million acres surrounding Green Bay. The cause of the fire is debatable, but that it was the most overlooked and devastating fire in American history is unanimous. That year, northern Wisconsin had experienced a dry autumn, and brush fires had been common. Rising smoke and fire bells no longer frightened people, and the Peshtigo Fire caught them off-guard.
Scrambling for safety, one family jumped into a well and survived, while others who did the same perished. All fifty-nine settlers of Williamsonville perished in an open potato field. Some survived by lying in water and covering their heads with wet blankets. Still others by caking themselves with mud. Clutching the horns of a cow, one little girl floated in a river all night long. An estimated 1,200-2,500 souls were lost.
Settlers seek shelter in an open field / Painting by Mel Kishner (1915-1991) displayed at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo, WI.
Knowing Adele’s story well, many settlers in Door County fled to the Chapel of Our Lady of Good Help. Many may have already been there celebrating the twelfth anniversary of the Virgin Mary’s apparition. All night, they hoisted a statue of the Virgin over their heads and crawled circles around the chapel, praying for deliverance from the blaze. The next morning, a downpour smothered the flames, leaving the chapel and three acres previously consecrated to Our Lady untouched. Even wild animals had survived on the chapel grounds.
Soon after the fire, a local paper called the chapel an “emerald isle in a sea of ash,” because for miles around the land was black and flattened. Visitors to the apparition site described charred markings on the back of the chapel fence where the fire had attempted to blaze through, yet had stopped. Known now as the Miracle of the Fire, this event is celebrated each year with vigils and processions at the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help.
Settlers fleeing by river / “Forest fires in the west-the - burning of Peshtigo” from Harper’s Weekly on November 25th, 1871.
Settlers flee Peshtigo, Wisconsin, where the fire first blazed / Painting by Mel Kishner (1915-1991) displayed at the Peshtigo Fire Museum, Peshtigo, WI.
A gripping tale
I haven’t found a detailed depiction of what took place at Adele’s chapel (now the National Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help). In my novel The Woman in the Trees, Slainie Lafont seeks shelter there during the fire. Her perspective is how I imagine the Miracle of the Fire taking place, but someday I hope to discover a real-life, firsthand account of a settler’s experience inside those chapel fences … and to share it with you.
One gripping account of this terrifying night comes from Father Peter Pernin. His story also includes a miracle—a Eucharistic one. Following the fire, he visited Adele and avidly supported her story.