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Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

When we think of wildfires, California is usually the first place that comes to mind.

Tonight, that series of fires still scorching Southern California.

You can see smoke and fire is still on the move across Bel Air.

But the deadliest wildfire in U.S. history wasn't in California. It might surprise you to learn that it was in Wisconsin.

And even though some 2,500 people died, the fire is barely remembered today.

In fact, even while it was happening, it was barely in the news at all.

It was October 8, 1871, in Pestigo, a lumber town up a dirt road from Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Brush fires had been popping up throughout the Midwest, the result of a summer drought that stretched into the first days of fall.

The Pestock townsfolk could smell smoke wafting through the pews.

Outside, ash sprinkled down like snowflakes. At first, nobody was all that worried. That morning,

residents went to church, prayed for God to spare them from the flames, and went about their

days.

But then, around 7 p.m., the sound of a train rumbled in.

Only it wasn't a train. It was the roar of a fire about to engulf the town.

Reverend Peter Pernan, the parish priest of Pestigo, witnessed the fire.

He wrote that he led the townspeople into the river, hoping that by treading water they could escape the flames. It didn't work,

and many died in the river. Others who were trapped killed themselves and their children before

the fire could get to them.

The next morning, when the fire was done, the survivors wandered through town like zombies.

The fire wiped out nearly the entire town on its path of fury.

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