Five Places Where You Can Still See Remnants of the Great Chicago Fire
Though the city was completely rebuilt within two years, you can still see evidence of the fire that destroyed it
By Jennifer Billock
smithsonian.com
January 24, 2018 4:20PM
On October 8, 1871, the city of Chicago became an inferno. One spark inside a barn at the O’Leary residence on DeKoven Street sent flames whirling through the city, pushed on by hellish winds and fed by 3.3 square miles of wooden buildings. When the city emerged from the flames on October 10, about 300 people were dead, 90,000 were homeless and more than 17,000 buildings were destroyed.
To this day, no one knows for sure exactly what started the fire in the O’Leary barn – an accident, vandalism or a stray spark from a nearby chimney. And while folklore points the finger at Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for kicking over a lantern, Catherine O’Leary and her cow were officially exonerated of blame by the Chicago City Council in 1997, more than 100 years later.
Read more:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/remnants-great-chicago-fire-180967918/#gMW24Er01yx1j48B.99
