Disasters in Wisconsin
These are generally treated individually in entries on fires, tornadoes, shipwrecks, forest fires, etc. Type the phrase "in Wisconsin" (without the quotes) in the Term search box to retrieve a list of these, as well as many other broad topics in Wisconsin history.
Besides disasters listed under those separate headings, the state experienced a number of other types of tragedies. On January 17, 1902, a farmer was fatally injured in a fight with a pack of wolves. On July 22, 1906, lightning killed several spectators at a ball game in Manitowoc. On May 6, 1947, Milwaukee was hit by a minor earthquake of "split second duration."
One of the most dramatic Wisconsin disasters was described by Frank Lloyd Wright, an eyewitness to the collapse of the south wing of the unfinished capitol at Madison, November 8, 1883: "The interior columns had fallen and the whole interior construction was a gigantic rubbish heap in the basement.... Whitened by lime dust as sculpture is white, men with bloody faces came plunging wildly out of the basement entrance blindly striking out about their heads with their arms, fighting off masonry and falling beams. Some fell dead on the grass under the clear sky. Others fell insensible. One workman, lime-whitened too, hung head-downward from a fifth story window, pinned to the sill by an iron beam on a crushed foot, moaning the whole time. A ghastly red stream ran from him down the stone wall."
WHS Library reference file; Milwaukee Journal, Chicago Sun, May 7, 1947; Frank Lloyd Wright, An Autobiography (N.Y., 1943), pp. 55-56; Wis. State Journal, Nov. 8, 1883.
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