In early October 1871, a small fire started in or near a barn that belonged to the Olyrie family on the southwest side of Chicago.

Thanks to the hot, dry, windy conditions, that small blaze soon built into a roaring inferno.

Over the course of three days, the fire destroyed three square miles of the city.

It killed 300 people, burned 17,000 structures, and left 100,000 people homeless.

It became known as the Great Chicago Fire for good reason.

One month later, a similar fire ravaged Boston.

So, four years after those fires, the city of Philadelphia had a problem.

After the devastating fires in Chicago and Boston, Philadelphia outlawed the construction of wooden structures leading up to the Centennial celebrations.

But millions of tourists wanted to visit the world's fair in the spring and summer of 1876, and there weren't enough hotel rooms in the city to hold them all.

So, the city council determined that the need to provide adequate housing outweighed fire concerns.

They considered several applications to build wood-framed structures on Elm Avenue near the park's entrance and eventually granted three.

One of those was for Texas Jack's new Western theme hotel.

The two-story hunter's home was a combination of a hotel, saloon, and shooting gallery.

It had room for just over 100 patrons at a time.

In addition to investing his money in the establishment, Jack sent many of his own weapons and trappings of frontier life.

Patrons could fire Texas Jack's guns at the indoor shooting gallery before retiring to the saloon that was well stocked with wines, loggers, and whiskies.

It was right across from the entrance to the fairgrounds, and newspaper readers as far away as San Francisco read descriptions like this.

The saloon of Texas Jack, the hunter's home, with many life-size wood cuts of Texas Jack pasted on the walls.

Texas Jack rifele in hand, Texas Jack swinging the riots.

Inside, it's an Indian woman in a brilliant red costume adorned with beads and furs.

Outside is a burly Indian, still more brilliant in red leggings, hunting shirt, and headdress of feathers.

On the curb, another Indian, more glaring still in red, silently offering bead work for sale.

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