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Peter Pernin’s The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account is a valuable source for what could be considered the ugly stepsister of the Great Chicago Fire. Had this disaster occurred at any other time, it would have garnered extensive national attention, but because of the media frenzy over the Chicago Fire, it was forgotten by contemporaries as well as historians. While the Bales hypothesis is fascinating and worthy of farther study, it shines an interesting light on the Peshtigo fire. Almost everyone knows the myth about Mrs. O’Leary and her cow starting the Chicago Fire, but the Peshtigo fire is much more unknown, although it took more lives and caused about the same about of property damage. An online source even goes so far as to call it the “forgotten fire.” How did this truly devastating fire that destroyed everything in its’ path begin? Was it the dry summer or the carelessness of locals, as Pernin describes? The lack of contemporary criminal investigation, such as the one that occurred in Chicago, shows the radically different treatment of the two disasters. In this, we see the different ways that disaster is perceived and portrayed due to its location in an urban or rural area. Although the Peshtigo fire took more lives, the Chicago fire impacted more lives directly, and was therefore given the priority in contemporary and historical analysis.
I would like to make a comparison that could be helpful to Eli’s argument: Bales’ ‘investigation’ seemed more like a CSI-type drama than a reliable historical account. While the medium that he is presenting his work must be considered, it does not excuse what feels like amateur detective work. Contrary to Eli’s further point on the irrationality of the townspeople’s actions in dealing with the looter, I find the irrationality in their behavior to be perfectly normal. The psychological effects of such a traumatic event must have been devastating, making rational thought and action impossible. Pernin himself acknowledges that he was incapable of caring for his flock due to the trauma.