The Wisconsin magazine of history: Volume 11, number 1, September 1927

              editorial comment great fires of seventy-one the unforgettable brand which doctor holmes placed upon the year 1755 when he wrote : that was the year that lisbon town saw the earth open and gulp her down excites a wish that some genius would invent an appro priately symbolic verbal picture for another disaster year 1871 that was the most memorable fire year this country ever experienced the burning of chicago was but the central and most dramatic event in the stupendous series of confla grations which enveloped portions of the northern states from the alleghenies to the rocky mountains indeed they were not confined within those limits but extended to utah nevada california and oregon in the west and to virginia pennsylvania and eastern new york prairie fires of fear ful range and destructiveness swept over great areas in kansas nebraska iowa south dakota and minnesota in some cases the fire wall was estimated to be one hundred miles in length in minnesota it extended from brecken ridge to the big woods along the wabash railway in ohio the woods burned over an area twenty-five miles in length in eastern michigan near saginaw hundreds of square miles of valuable forest were destroyed the city of rochester new york was shrouded in smoke from burn ing woods in five counties of that state fires were noted in canada at the same time also in the mountains of pennsyl