The Great Chicago Fire- October 8, 1871

The June 17, 2007 Chicago Tribune Magazine printed a brief "5 Essential Things about The Great Chicago Fire. " I found them to be interesting; some of them I didn't know.

1. Began about 9 PM, Oct. 8th and continued to early Oct. 10. Ground zero was the O'Leary barn at 137 DeKoven St. (I wonder if their place is still there). Killed around 300 people, destroyed much of Chicago, left 100,000 homeless. The O'Leary house and front of the barn were not damaged. (Who'd have figured that!)

2. Thousands of people fled the fire carry what possessions they could. Many went to the city's borders at Fullerton Ave. That is no longer the outskirts of the city.

3. No one has found a photograph of the fire in progress. However, there are 31 pencil, chalk, and white paint illustrations by famed Civil War artist Alfred Waud. He was in St. Louis, and jumped on a train to Chicago right away.

4. This was not the worst loss of life due to fire in Chicago history. That was the 1903 Iroquois Theater fire in which 602 perished.

5. The first load of lumber to rebuild the city was delivered the day the flames were extinguished. Just 22 years later, Chicago hosted the Columbian Exposition which was also intended to show the phoenix arising of the city. Twenty-two years is about how long it has been since the Bears last WON a Super Bowl. And we're not even going to talk about the CUBS.

Other stuff I might add at this point.

1. A lot of the debris from the fire was dumped along the lakefront, some creating what is today Grant Park.

2. Architects and planners were given clean slates to rebuild Chicago, whose unbelievably rapid growth from 1840 had created a real mish-mosh of streets and buildings.

3. The old Chicago Museum of History had one exhibit where they showed about twelve spoons that were fused together by the heat. I always thought that was neat. I don't know if the newly reopened facility still has them on display.

4. The famous Watertower on Michigan Avenue is one of the few surviving downtown buildings.

5. It is now the belief that the fire was started in the barn, but Not By the Cow, but by a drunk trying to sleep one off.

6. Most people don't know that there was a much worse fire in Wisconsin on the same date that killed about 4000 people. It was overshadowed by the event in Chicago.

7. The whole Midwest had been in an extended drought all summer and fall at the time, and there were very strong winds on Oct. 8th. That and all those wooden buildings were not a good combination.

8. They actually raised the streets, which because Chicago was built on a marshy area, caused a lot of mud and mess during rains.

9. Quite a few possessions of Abraham Lincoln were destroyed in the fire, including an original copy of the Gettysburg Address. They were being stored by Lincoln's son while he was trying to figure out what to do with his mentally-challenged (how's that for pc?) mother.

Things You Didn't Know about the Great Chicago Fire. --RoadDog