Sanilac Guide 2018

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DINING & SHOPPING www.sanilaccounty.org
Fires and Petroglyphs
Sanilac County, presumably named after a Huron Indian
Chief, was organized in 1848, having originally been part of
St. Clair County. Lexington was the county seat until 1879,
when it was moved to Sandusky. The county was heavily
forested, and the first pioneers to arrive, in approximately
1842, had to travel by foot along Native American trails
(http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mi/county/sanilac/history_
of_sanilac_county.htm).
Because of the heavy forests in the county, it was perfect
for the lumber industry, and many of the first Sanilac
County settlers came to work in lumber mills. However,
on October 8 and 9 of 1871, and then again on September
4-6, 1881, Sanilac County was engulfed in flames due to
poor lumbering practices which left behind large amounts
of dry wood and brush piles, as well as severe droughts,
purposely set land clearing fires, and hurricane force winds.
There are many accounts of the horror of these fires, with
whole villages and settlements being wiped out, and many
lives lost, including entire families who could not escape
the flames.
The fire of 1881 was particularly fierce, often being
referred to as the Great Thumb Fire. It killed 282 people
in Sanilac County and the surrounding counties of Lapeer,
Huron and Tuscola. The fire sent enough soot and ash up
into the atmosphere that sunlight was partially obscured
at many locations as far away as the East Coast of the
United States. In New England cities, the sky appeared
yellow and projected a strange luminosity onto buildings
and vegetation. Twilight appeared at 12 noon. September
6, 1881 immediately became known as Yellow Tuesday or
Yellow Day due to the ominous nature of this atmospheric
event.
That same year, Clara Barton, at the age of 60, founded
the American Red Cross. The organization’s first official
disaster relief operation was in response to the Great
Thumb Fire. The Red Cross provided money, clothes
and household items. The fire caused more than 14,000
people to be dependent on public aid.
It also destroyed over 2000 barns, dwellings, and schools.
A little of that destruction can be seen on the Banner Cabin,
located at the Sanilac County Historic Village and Museum
in Port Sanilac. The cabin was built by Henry Patten and
his sons from the trees left standing on their land near the
long-forgotten settlement of Banner, four miles west of
Deckerville. Some of those trees exhibited charring from
the inferno, which can clearly be observed on the cabin’s
exterior.
To mark these tragic wildfires, the Sanilac County Historic
Village and Museum is presenting a lecture by Alan
Naldrett, author of the book, Michigan’s Great Thumb
Detail of a carved archer-like figure at the Sanilac
Petroglyphs site in Sanilac County, Michigan
Photo courtesy: Claytonllibrar - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.
wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=27836882
Fires of 1871 and 1881, on Sunday, September 23,
2018, in the Museum Church, located at 228 S. Ridge
St., Port Sanilac, Michigan. For more information, visit
their website at www.sanilaccountymuseum.org or call
810-622-9946.
Although the fires were devastating to Sanilac County
and the surrounding area, the 1881 fire revealed
Michigan’s only known Native American rock carvings,
discovered by local residents soon after the fire. They
are thought to have been created by an unknown Native
American tribe between 400 and 1000 years ago and are
now preserved at the Petroglyph State Park, located on
Germania Rd., in the north west area of Sanilac County.
They are carved into a 1,000 square foot sandstone rock
and include depictions of swirls, lines, handprints, bowwielding
men, flying birds and other animals.
Because the carvings were made in the relatively friable
sandstone, there is concern that, without preservation,
they may be worn away and ultimately lost. To help
protect the carvings, a pavilion has been built around
them, and visitors are not allowed to touch or stand on
the rock.
While the fires of 1871 and 1881 ravaged Sanilac County,
the residents were resilient and turned the fires to their
advantage by becoming a strong and vibrant agricultural
community made possible by the open land and rich soil
created by the fires. Due to their hard work and creativity,
the county thrives today, capitalizing not only on their
natural resource of farm land, but on their beautiful Lake
Huron shoreline. Come experience both!