Peshtigo Fire Museum
Coordinates: 45°03′21″N 87°45′12″W / 45.055867°N 87.753372°W
On October 8, 1871, a firestorm roared through Peshtigo and surrounding areas, killing over 2,000 people and destroying the entire city and its livelihood. The Peshtigo Fire Museum preserves this heritage through 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 located adjacent to the Peshtigo Fire Cemetery, 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 memorial at the cemetery was the first official state historical marker authorized by the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.
A featured item in the museum's collection is the Church tabernacle that local Roman Catholic priest Father Peter Pernin saved by submerging in the Peshtigo River. The tabernacle survived the fire unblemished. Pernin published a book called "The Great Peshtigo Fire: An Eyewitness Account", which was republished by the Wisconsin Historical Society in 1971. The book documents Pernin's account of the tabernacle submersion in the river, rescue, and horrific accounts of discoveries during and after the fire. Other Peshtigo fire items include a small burned Bible and a melted glass dish discovered by a construction worker in 1995. The Bible is open to Psalms 106 and 107. Several letters with first person accounts of the fire and cleanup are on display. One letter recently added to the collection 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 depicts before, during, and after the fire.
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