The Darkened Sky
Shortly before noon on September 5,1881,the sky turned black over four counties in the Thumb District of Michigan. As strong winds blew from the south west,the air filled with smoke and ash. By the time the smoke had cleared,two thousand square miles of forest had burned. The causes of this disaster were both human and natural.
Some of the conditions for the massive were created when lumber camps lined the shores of Lake Huron around 1850. Because the tall,straight trunks of native white pines and the bark from hemlocks were the only commercially useful parts of the trees,lumberjacks carelessly left the unwanted trunks and branches to accumulate on the forest floor.Then,in 1871,a fire swept through the tops of the trees in the forests of the Thumb District so quickly that it killed trees without entirely consuming them. As a result,the remaining charred stumps added to the already huge piles of highly flammable kindling,piles as deep as twelve to fifteen feet.
Weather conditions also contributed to the disastrous fire. No significant rain had fallen for almost two months,and most wells and streams were dry. Cracks criss-crossed the dry earth. Had it rained prior to the fire,the moist ground could have helped prevent its spread. Furthermore,high south-westerly winds up to forty miles per hour were recorded in the southern area of the forest. These powerful winds not only knocked down large trees,but also tore roofs from buildings and lifted people off their feet.
People lit the match that touched off the flames. To clear their land of tree stumps and brush piles, settlers in the Thumb District burned them. Strong winds and dry conditions did the rest.
As the horrific fire approached, people took refuge in cleared fields, in wells, and in Lake Huron. The wind fanned the flames so quickly that,according to some accounts,horses racing away from the flames were overtaken and engulfed. The dense smoke prevented many settlers from finding shelter. As a result,280 people perished,thousands of people were left homeless,and countless domestic and wild animals died.