Last Friday marked the 150th anniversary of the deadliest blaze in American history. Whipped by tornado-force winds that traversed a drought-stricken prairie, the fire that struck on October 8, 1871, reduced an entire Midwestern outpost to ashes and killed over 2,000 people. 

The Great Chicago Fire?

Nope.

The Great Peshtigo Fire.

Read all about this piece of forgotten history in the October edition of The Throwback, my monthly history e-newsletter.  Also inside, a new George Washington travelogue plus did you know that Muhammad Ali was a 2-time Grammy nominee?