Peshtigo Fire
E29018
The Peshtigo Fire was a catastrophic 1871 forest fire in Wisconsin that remains the deadliest wildfire in United States history.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Peshtigo Fire canonical | 11 |
| Peshtigo Fire of 1871 | 3 |
| Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871 | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T221097 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Peshtigo Fire Context triple: [Great Holland Fire of 1871, temporalOverlap, Peshtigo Fire]
-
A.
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a catastrophic urban conflagration that destroyed much of Chicago, killed hundreds, left thousands homeless, and spurred major changes in building codes and city planning.
-
B.
Great Holland Fire of 1871
The Great Holland Fire of 1871 was a devastating conflagration that destroyed much of Holland, Michigan, during the same period as the Great Chicago Fire and other major Midwest fires.
-
C.
Indian Creek massacre
The Indian Creek massacre was an 1832 attack during the Black Hawk War in which a group of Potawatomi and Sauk warriors killed and captured settlers near present-day Earlville, Illinois.
-
D.
Colfax massacre
The Colfax massacre was an 1873 episode of racial and political violence in Louisiana in which white supremacists killed dozens of Black freedmen, marking one of the deadliest incidents of Reconstruction-era terror and undermining Black civil rights in the post–Civil War South.
-
E.
Burning of Washington
The Burning of Washington was a British attack during the War of 1812 in which invading forces captured and set fire to multiple U.S. government buildings in the capital, including the presidential mansion.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Peshtigo Fire Target entity description: The Peshtigo Fire was a catastrophic 1871 forest fire in Wisconsin that remains the deadliest wildfire in United States history.
-
A.
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
The Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was a catastrophic urban conflagration that destroyed much of Chicago, killed hundreds, left thousands homeless, and spurred major changes in building codes and city planning.
-
B.
Great Holland Fire of 1871
The Great Holland Fire of 1871 was a devastating conflagration that destroyed much of Holland, Michigan, during the same period as the Great Chicago Fire and other major Midwest fires.
-
C.
Turner's Falls massacre
The Turner's Falls massacre was a brutal 1676 attack by English colonial militia on a Native American encampment during King Philip's War, resulting in the deaths of many Indigenous people, including women and children.
-
D.
Indian Creek massacre
The Indian Creek massacre was an 1832 attack during the Black Hawk War in which a group of Potawatomi and Sauk warriors killed and captured settlers near present-day Earlville, Illinois.
-
E.
Colfax massacre
The Colfax massacre was an 1873 episode of racial and political violence in Louisiana in which white supremacists killed dozens of Black freedmen, marking one of the deadliest incidents of Reconstruction-era terror and undermining Black civil rights in the post–Civil War South.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (46)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
forest fire
ⓘ
historical event ⓘ wildfire ⓘ |
| aftermath |
creation of mass graves for victims
ⓘ
rebuilding of Peshtigo ⓘ |
| areaBurned | approximately 1,200,000 acres ⓘ |
| cause |
drought conditions
ⓘ
slash-and-burn land clearing practices ⓘ strong winds ⓘ |
| commemoratedOn | October 8 ⓘ |
| concurrentWith |
Great Chicago Fire of 1871
ⓘ
surface form:
Great Chicago Fire
Great Midwest Fires of 1871 ⓘ
surface form:
Great Michigan Fire
|
| coordinateLocation | 45.053°N 87.749°W ⓘ |
| country |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| deathToll |
between 1200 and 2500
ⓘ
over 1000 ⓘ |
| disasterType | natural disaster ⓘ |
| hasArticleOn |
Wikipedia
ⓘ
surface form:
English Wikipedia
|
| hasEffect |
destruction of the town of Peshtigo
ⓘ
massive loss of life ⓘ widespread forest destruction in northeastern Wisconsin ⓘ |
| impact |
increased awareness of fire safety
ⓘ
influence on development of forest management practices in the United States ⓘ |
| languageOfWorkOrName | English ⓘ |
| location |
Door Peninsula region
ⓘ
surface form:
Door Peninsula
Marinette County, Wisconsin ⓘ Northeastern Wisconsin ⓘ Oconto County, Wisconsin ⓘ Peshtigo, Wisconsin ⓘ |
| memorial |
Peshtigo Fire Cemetery
ⓘ
Peshtigo Fire Museum ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Peshtigo, Wisconsin ⓘ |
| notableFor |
deadliest wildfire in United States history
ⓘ
one of the deadliest fires in world history ⓘ |
| partOf |
1871 Great Chicago Fire complex of fires
ⓘ
1871 fires in the Midwestern United States ⓘ history of Wisconsin ⓘ history of wildfires in the United States ⓘ |
| pointInTime | 1871 ⓘ |
| startDate | 1871-10-08 ⓘ |
| timePeriod | 19th century ⓘ |
| townAffected |
Northeastern Wisconsin
ⓘ
surface form:
Marinette, Wisconsin region
Northeastern Wisconsin ⓘ
surface form:
Oconto, Wisconsin region
|
| townDestroyed | Peshtigo, Wisconsin ⓘ |
| weatherCondition |
dry conditions
ⓘ
high winds ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Peshtigo Fire Description of subject: The Peshtigo Fire was a catastrophic 1871 forest fire in Wisconsin that remains the deadliest wildfire in United States history.
Referenced by (15)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
subject surface form:
Peshtigo Fire Museum
this entity surface form:
Great Peshtigo Fire of 1871
this entity surface form:
Peshtigo Fire of 1871
this entity surface form:
Peshtigo Fire of 1871
this entity surface form:
Peshtigo Fire of 1871