1. When and where was this image captured?

2.  What is happening in this image?

3. What specific people/objects do you see? 

4. What do you notice about the object's condition or the people's expressions or appearance?

5. Why would the person choose this particular scene to capture?

6. What information do the words accompanying the image provide?

7. What is missing from the image?

8. What problems for people are suggested by the images?

9.  What is interesting or surprising about this image?

10. What additional information about the event did you learn from  this image?
 
 

Personal Account Analysis:

1. When and where did this interview take place?

2. What encounter with nature is described in this personal account?

3. How long after the event occurred was this inteview made?

4. What words or phrases best create a visual image of the event?

5. What attitude towards this event does the person seem to have?

6. Who or what at does this person seem to believe is responsible for this event occurring?

7. What problems or effects does the event seem to have had on people's lives?

8.  What lesson does this person seem to have learned from this event?

9. Is there anything interesting or surprising to you about this person's reaction to the situation?

10. What new insights into the natural event does this interview provide you?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

1. If there is a cover to this piece of sheet music, examine it carefully.  What message does the cover give you about the event?

2. What natural event is this song about?

3. Read through the lyrics. Write a  summary describing the main idea of the song.

4. List any words in the song with which you are not familiar. Find their meanings in a dictionary.

5. Choose one or two phrases of the song that are interesting to you. Explain why they caught your attention.

6. Who or what does the song writer feel is responsible for the event?

7. What problems or effects of the event are mentioned in the song?

8. What new insights does this song give you about the event described?

9. What surprises you about the song?

10. What questions do you have?
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

  1. What additional information
  about the event did the other sources
 provide? 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Following are excerpts from an eye-witness account of that fire, which has come to be known as the Great Peshtigo Fire. The account comes from the journal of Reverend Peter Pernin.

Overshadowed By a Cow: The Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871
The year 1871 was distinguished by its unusual dryness. Farmers enlarged their clearings, cutting down and burning the wood that stood in their way. Hundreds of laborers employed in the construction of a railroad had acted in like manner... At night hunters and Indians kindle a large fire wherever they may chance to halt, knowing that the fire will keep at a distance any wild animals... The ensuing morning they depart without taking the precaution of extinguishing the smoldering embers of the fire that has protected and warmed them... In this way the wood, particularly in the fall, are gleaming everywhere with fires lighted by man, and which, fed on every side by dry leaves and branches, spread more or less. If fanned by a brisk gale of wind they are liable to assume most formidable proportions.

The danger proved more imminent in places exposed to the wind... Towards seven in the evening, the wind was beginning to rise, blowing in short fitful gusts. At one time, whilst walking in the fields, the wind rose suddenly with more strength than it had yet displayed and I perceived some old trunks of trees blaze out though without seeing about them any tokens of cinder or spark, just as if the wind had been a breath of fire, capable of kindling them into a flame by its mere contact. We extinguished these; the wind fell again, and nature resumed her moody and mysterious silence... On looking towards the west, I perceived above the dense cloud of smoke overhanging the earth, a vivid red reflection of immense extent, and then suddenly struck on my ear a distant roaring, yet muffled sound, announcing that the elements were in commotion somewhere...

It was now about half past eight in the evening... The crimson reflection in the western portion of the sky was rapidly increasing in size and in intensity... I heard plainly in the midst of the unnatural calm and silence reigning around, the strange and terrible muttered thunder, which became more distinct as it drew each moment nearer...

The air was no longer fit to breathe, full as it was of sand, dust, ashes, cinders, sparks, smoke , and fire. It was almost impossible to keep one's eyes unclosed, to distinguish the road, or to recognize people... Some were hastening towards the river, others from it, whilst all were struggling alike in the grasp of the hurricane. A thousand discordant noises rose on the air together. The neighing of horses, falling of chimneys, crashing of uprooted trees, roaring and whistling of the wind, crackling of fire as it ran with lightning-like rapidity from house to house -- all sounds were there save that of the human voice. People seemed stricken dumb by their terror... We all hurried blindly on to our fate.

Immersion in water was better than immersion in fire... It was ten o'clock when we entered into the river. When doing so I neither knew the length of time we would remain there, nor what would ultimately happen to us... Once in water up to our necks, I thought we would, at least be safe from fire, but all was not so; the flames darted over the river as they did over land, the air was full of them, or rather the air itself was on fire...

I came out of the river about half past three in the morning, and from that time I was in a very different condition, both morally and physically. Today, in recalling the past, I can see that the moment most fraught with danger was precisely that in which danger seemed to end. The atmosphere, previously hot as the breath of a furnace, was gradually becoming colder and colder, and, after having been so long in the river, I was of course exceedingly susceptible to its chilly influence... Almost lifeless, I stretched myself out full length on the sand. It was still hot, and the warmth in some degree restored me...

It is a painful thing to have to speak of scenes which we feel convinced no pen could fully describe nor words do justice to. It was on the eleventh of October that I revisited for the first time what had once been the town of Peshtigo. Of the houses, trees, fences that I had looked on three days ago nothing whatever remained, save a few blackened posts still standing, as if to attest the impetuous fury of the fiery element that had thus destroyed all before it... The trunks of mighty trees had been reduced to mere cinders, the blackened hearts alone remaining... Charred carcasses of animals lay scattered here and there. The bodies of human victims had already been collected and decently interred -- their number being easily ascertained by counting the rows of freshly-made graves... The living searched for loved ones; their heartrending accounts, combined with the fearful desolation that met my gaze wherever it turned, froze my veins with horror!&

Source document.

Lyrics:

Out of the Flames

Where, oh, where's our little Nell?
My heart is full of grief;
Will not some sweet angel tell
And give my heart relief?
Our Lillie's saved, and Mary too
Will's near and our Belle;
But where is she, our dearest one,
Our darling little Nell?
But where is she, our dearest one,
Our darling little Nell?

We didn't see her wee-wee face
When we escaped the fire
The smoke had curtained all the place
The scarlet tide rose higher.
See! Lillie dear fall on her knees
And call upon God's name
"Do send kind angels, if you please,
To bear her from the flames."

Methinks I see the angels
Right in amidst the flame
Bearing away our darling Nell
And calling her by name:
So tenderly they bore her,
Ascending higher and higher,
And safely home they took her,
To swell the angel choir.

Our darling Nell whom all did love
To call her pretty name
The angels took her up above
Out of that crimson  flame.
 
 

Source: Library of Congress

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885, Library of Congress

Note: Although not written to describe this particular fire, this song reflects the feelings of the composer to a similar event which occurred in Chicago on the same date.

Other Resources:
Library of Congress: Nineteenth Century Book Description (p.259-277)
Wildfire Safety