The building that houses the gallery stands on what was
probably the edge of a settlement named Williamsonville. The small settlement
grew around a cedar shingle making company owned by the Williamson family. In
the early days, in the period starting around 1850 to the early 1870’s the main
way to make a living was as a fisherman, lumberjack or farming the land that
had been cleared for lumber and shingles. The Williamson’s Mill supplied cedar
shingles to Green Bay and many towns south to Milwaukee.
The weather in 1871 was very dry and hot throughout the
nation. In Wisconsin the crops failed and
dried in the fields in Door
County. The common
logging practice was to leave the unwanted wood where it fell and this dried
scrap wood added to the waiting danger. The wetlands were dried up and people
were concerned about the small fires that kept popping up during the summer and
fall seasons.
On the other side of Green
Bay the new railroad used fire to clear the trees from
the railroad right of way. This practice caused multiple fires in 1871 the
smoke often causing extremely poor visibility. By late September the fires
became more intense and some had gone underground. Then during the late evening
of October 8th 1871 the weather changed, the humidity plummeted and
the wind gusted to near 60 miles. These conditions created vortexes, generating
fire tornadoes and finally a firestorm near Peshtigo.
Very similar weather conditions existed on the East side of
the bay. The firestorm started later during the night hours of October 8th
with fire balls and fire whirlwinds. Reports are unclear about where the fire
tornado originated but it is of little consequence. The result was an intense
firestorm from the south that raced over western Door County
that destroyed the Williansonville community and nearly all of its members. The
fire, to different degrees, damaged the areas of Union, Brussels,
Forestville, Gardner, Nasewaupee, Clay Banks,
and Sturgeon Bay. The towns in the Northern part of
this area were partially protected by the swamps that burned earlier in the
year. The next day it finally rained, the rain lasting most of the day and with
enough volume to extinguish the fires.
The community of Williamsonville was never rebuilt but the
legacy of the fire is still remembered. For a while the Post Office district
was called Tornado, in 1945 this building was either built or converted into a
tavern and named Tornado Tavern. The road closest to this building to the “South”
is named Tornado Road.
Finally, about ¼ mile to the “North” is a memorial park at what was probably
the center of Williamsonville. In the park there is a marker where the well is
believed to have been where seven people took refuge to avoid the fire, five
survived.
Note: The “Present Highway” is now County Road DK
There were three major fires on October 8th 1871,
Chicago and the Great Michigan Fire that cut a wide strip across Michigan proper. The
fires in Wisconsin and Michigan had a significant affect on the
lumber industry and may have contributed to the depression of 1873.
During my research of the fire I learned that many logs and
beams with charred exteriors can be found in the older buildings of the Sturgeon Bay area. I investigated the beams in
this building and found a number of them charred and as far as I know this
building was never involved in a fire. The picture below is the Tornado Tavern
in 1947, a year or two years after it was opened.
I placed the direction in quotes (three paragraphs above) because
people who come to Door
County frequently become,
at least partially, directionally disorientated. The front of the Tornado
Tavern actually faces north but since Highway 57 runs north and south most of
the time we can become disorientated, particularly when the sun is not visible.
