Sodders devotes one section of her book (1997:157-254) to forest fires that burned in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan from 1847 to 1949. A significant number of forest fires burned over the course of these years were of varying degrees of intensity and loss of property. Many lost everything as a result of these fires. In the mid-nineteenth century the Upper Peninsula had large stands of virgin White Pine. At least in the late 19th century timber interests were dominant in the Upper Peninsula. The loss of timber, both in forest as well as piles of logs awaiting transport was staggering. Many timber operations did not survive these fires. Many workers in the timber industry not only lost their jobs but their homes as well. Contributing factors to the cause of these fires varied with early years dominated by dry weather, poor land clearing practices, and poor timber management with large areas of slash left on the ground.
I am going to focus on fires that burned in Ontonagon in 1896 in early September 1896. The couple of months leading up to the September fires were very dry and some fires that were burning in this period caused concern. High winds picked up on or about September 12th. Diamond Match had milling operations in and near Ontonagon, a processing mill near a lumber yard burned to the ground along with millions of square feet of logs. The Diamond Match mill burned to the ground a couple of weeks later. On September 25th, much of Ontonagon burned to the ground leaving over 2,000 people homeless. Diamond Match never rebuilt, moving their milling operations elsewhere. Millions of board feet of Diamond’s lumber remained, the town wanted it to recoup some of their losses but Diamond hauled all the lumber away by rail. Near by cities responded quickly with relief sent via rail, much of it was shipped for free. The Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad give five day free passes to fire sufferers. Military sent tents for a tent village (Sodders, 1997:168-78).
There is a nice summary of the Ontonagon fires found in the Hometown Chronicles. The Hometown Chronicles is devoted to historical and genealogical data. The article on the Ontonagon Fires from the Hometown Chronicles may be found here where you will also find links to other newspaper articles about the fire including this eyewitness account reproduced in the Ironwood Daily Globe on August 26, 1954
The name Diamond Match means something to me as I remember wooden matches from Diamond Match going back to my youth. No, I was not allowed to use matches and my parents kept them out of reach but the box came out on camping trips. I have a box of Diamond matches in my kitchen cabinet. As I read Sodder's account of the 1896 Ontonagon Fires, I paid special attention to Diamond Match. I was not surprised to read that their mill and lumber yard burned and the loss of lumber. I was deeply saddened to read that the owners of Diamond Match did not rebuild in their mill and lumberyard in Ontonagon. At some point Diamond Match shipped their remaining lumber out of town by rail. I can can certainly understand and empathize with the loss of so many residences and businesses and then losing Diamond Match, a major employer, on top of it. I do not think that I can imagine what the residents of Ontonagon went through. But their story is not necessarily so different from the stories of other towns burned in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But for reasons that are hard for me to explain, it is the story of Ontonagon and Diamond Match that had an impact on me With the loss of so much virgin White Pine timber from this and earlier fires, the decision of Diamond Match to not rebuild makes a very small amount of sense. Ontonagon did rebuild, but like other areas of Michigan the days of White Pine lumbering were over. I recommend reading a fine article on Diamond Match reproduced by The Free Library.
Note:
- Sodders, Betty (edited and designed by Don Weeks). Michigan on Fire. 1997: Thunder Bay Press.
- The links to the two articles in the Hometown Chronicles and the link to the article from The Free Library were working at the time I wrote this article. I do not do a lot of historical research. So, I have no experience in how long sites like these two will have these articles freely available.
- December 15, 2021: Introduction
- December 17, 2021: 1871 Fires
- December 20: 2021: 1881 Thumb Fires, part 1
- December 22: 2021: 1881 Thumb Fires, part 2
- December 27, 2021: 1896 Ontonagan Fire (this article)
- December 29, 2021: 1908 Metz Fire
- January 3, 2022: 1911 Au Sable - Oscoda Fire
- January 5, 2022: Reflections
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