Destruction and Deterioration m 



in 1871, during the same month of October when 

 Chicago was laid in ashes, devastated the coun- 

 try about the shores of Green Bay, in Wisconsin. 

 More than three million dollars' worth of prop- 

 erty was burnt, at least two thousand families of 

 settlers were made homeless, villages were de- 

 stroyed, and over a thousand lives lost. The next 

 greatest forest fire was that of 1881, in the Saginaw 

 region of Michigan. After having burned here and 

 there in the usual manner for weeks, it became un- 

 controllable on September 5th, when many of the 

 separate blazes united into one immense sea of 

 flame that swept resistlessly over the counties of 

 Huron and Sanilac, as well as portions of adjoin- 

 ing counties. About eighteen hundred square miles 

 were involved in ruin, and in a large portion of this 

 territory the flames made a clean sweep of trees, as 

 well as crops, fences, houses, bridges, and every- 

 thing of an inflammable nature, turning the land 

 temporarily into a desert. The total loss in prop- 

 erty, aside from standing timber and injury to the 

 soil, was estimated at over two millions of dollars. 

 One hundred and thirty-eight persons, many of 

 them women and children, perished in the flames. 

 The relief sent to the sufferers by the people of 

 the entire country, in addition to large quantities 

 of supplies, amounted to $1,006,102.47. 



In regard to the loss of life, few forest fires have 

 been more appalling than that which, in 1894, de- 

 vastated the country southwest of Duluth, Minn., 

 and is usually known as the Hinckley fire. Over 



