1871 Watson City Map or Plan of Chicago, Illinois, and the Great Fire Burn District

This is an 1871 Gaylord Watson city plan or map of Chicago, Illinois, highlighting the area burned by the Great Chicago Fire. Dark red emphasizes the over three square miles burned by the fire and a nota bene below the bottom border reinforces this fact. City wards are labeled and shaded different colors for easy differentiation. Streets are illustrated and labeled throughout, along with parks, cemeteries, and an artesian well. Sites within the burned area are also identified, including three railroad passenger stations on the shore of Lake Michigan, the courthouse, post office, and water works. It is worth noting that the water tower and the pump house at the water works both survived the fire and can still be visited in Chicago.

The Great Chicago Fire

The Great Chicago Fire burned roughly 3.3 square miles of the city of Chicago, Illinois from October 8 - 10, 1871. Approximately 300 people died and more than 100,000 of the city's residents were left homeless. The city's largely wooden construction and hot, dry, windy conditions led to the fire's rapid spread. The precise cause of the fire was never determined, but legends and theories spread quickly. The most popular of these theories was that Mrs. Catherine O'Leary was milking her cow in the family's barn when the cow kicked over a lantern (or an oil lamp, depending on the version of the story) that set the barn ablaze.

Publication History and Census

This map was created and copyrighted by Gaylord Watson in 1871. The present example was published in The Great Fires in Chicago and the West written by Reverend E. J. Goodspeed. We note five examples of the map cataloged in OCLC which are part of the collection at Michigan State University, the University of Illinois at Chicago, the Illinois State Library, the University of Chicago, and the Urbana Free Library.