Imperial reckoning

"On October 8, 1871, a tornado of fire more than 1,000 feet high and 5 miles wide ripped through the town of Peshtigo, Wisconsin, destroying over 2,400 square miles of forest and killing more than 2,200 people. On the same day, 262 miles to the south, 300 people died in the highly publicized Chicago fire.". "Denise Gess and William Lutz rescue the long-forgotten story of this firestorm and the people caught in its path. We meet the ambitious lumber barons Isaac Stephenson and William Ogden, flush with the American dream of building lumber mills and towns to reap the riches of the vast…