Most lumberjacks wanted what came in bottles and corsets in the nearest lumber town saloon, but Matthias Timmermann wanted out of the logging camps and into the arms of Annabella, a beautiful German girl working in a boarding house.
On October 8, 1871, there was more than desire burning. The people of Peshtigo and the Sugar Bushes ran for the rivers and creeks trying to outrun the fire storm.