The Peshtigo Fire Museum preserves the heritage of the Peshtigo Fire, which destroyed the city of Peshtigo, Wisconsin and surrounding area on October 8, 1871, killing over 2,000 people. It hosts storytelling, exhibits of artifacts from the fire, displays of the lifestyle at the time of the disaster, and a cemetery to memorialize those who died. The museum is adjacent to the

Peshtigo Fire Cemetery The Peshtigo Fire Cemetery is a cemetery in Peshtigo, Wisconsin. The cemetery is the burial location of the charred remains of victims of the Peshtigo Fire, of October 8, 1871, the deadliest natural fire in the history of the United States. Ident ...

, where the charred remains of over 350 people were buried in a mass grave. The cemetery is listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

. The memorial at the cemetery was the first official state historical marker authorized by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

Collection

A featured item in the museum's collection is the Church tabernacle that local Roman Catholic

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

Father

Peter Pernin Jean-Pierre Pernin (February 22, 1822 – October 9, 1909), also known as Peter Pernin in America, was a French Roman Catholic priest, who came to the United States in 1864 as a missionary, working in Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. As Cath ...

saved by submerging in the

Peshtigo River The Peshtigo River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed December 19, 2011 tributary of Green Bay in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. The Peshtigo Fire happened in the river ...

.The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871: Museum
Retrieved August 28, 2007 The tabernacle survived the fire unblemished. Other Peshtigo fire items include a small burned

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

and a melted glass dish discovered by a construction worker in 1995.Peshtigo Fire Museum at uncommondays.com
. Retrieved August 28, 2007. The Bible is open to

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( or ; he, תְּהִלִּים, , lit. "praises"), also known as the Psalms, or the Psalter, is the first book of the ("Writings"), the third section of the Tanakh, and a book of the Old Testament. The title is derived ...

106 and 107."The Peshtigo Fire Museum, unlike anything we've seen"
, wisconsincentral.net, Retrieved August 28, 2007 Several letters with first-person accounts of the fire and cleanup are on display. One letter describes burying nine to ten hundred (900 to 1000) dead. There are several maps of Peshtigo, one before the fire and another showing the extent of the fire. A

mural A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...

depicts before, during, and after the fire. Other items that the museum features include a collection of antique items showing the history of the area. All items in the museum were donated.

History

The museum is located on the site where St. Mary's Catholic Church stood before the fire. The first church to be rebuilt after the fire was a

Congregational Church Congregational churches (also Congregationalist churches or Congregationalism) are Protestant churches in the Calvinist tradition practising congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its ...

, across the river from the St. Mary's site and a new Catholic church later built at the St. Mary's site. The Catholic church burned again in 1927, and later rebuilt elsewhere. The Congregational church was moved across the river, by Edmund B. Dupuis, after 1927 to the St. Mary's site and that structure was converted to the museum in 1963.

References

External links

* {{Official website, http://peshtigofiremuseum.com/, Peshtigo Fire Museum official website Museums established in 1963 Museums in Marinette County, Wisconsin Firefighting museums in the United States Firefighting memorials History museums in Wisconsin 1963 establishments in Wisconsin Firefighting in Wisconsin

Collection

History

See also

References

External links