PRESQUE ISLE COUNTY VISITORS’ AND RESOURCE GUIDE--2018--23
Ocqueoc Outdoor Center
The Presque Isle County Historical
Museum (PICHM) will be commemorating
the deadliest disaster in the history
of Presque Isle County and one of Michi-
110th anniversary with
special plans during the
Nautical Festival in early
August.
Museum executive
director/curator Mark
Thompson will be offering
narrated bus tours of
-
val week.
A d d i t i o n a l l y,
Thompson will have a
PowerPoint presentation
at the Rogers City Theater
in conjunction with
Presque Isle District Library.
A presentation will
be set for Saturday of
Nautical Festival and
again Oct. 14.
The Metz Fire of
1908 started somewhere
west of Millersburg, in the
late morning of Oct. 15, 1908.
Pushed by gale force winds, by that
Lake Huron shoreline, a distance of about
35 miles.
In its
wake, 37 people
lay dead
and the onceprosperous
village
of Metz
was a charred
and a smoking
ruin. More
than 100 families—
about 700
people—found
t h e m s e l v e s
homeless.
The singleworst
tragedy
-
curred just
a few blocks
southeast of
Metz. The Detroit
& Mackinac
Railroad
had sent a
train into Metz to evacuate the residents.
About 40 residents, mainly women
and children, boarded the train, often
bringing their prized possessions with
them.
By the time the train left, the area
At Nowicki’s Siding, just southeast of
Metz, huge stacks of cedar posts, railroad
ties and hemlock bark were burning on
both sides of the track.
The heat was so intense that it had
warped the steel rails, and the train derailed
amidst the raging inferno.
Some of those aboard the train were
able to escape, often by crawling back
along the tracks. For 12 people, however,
the gondola car became their crematorium.
The site is now a registered Michigan
Historical Site with its own marker
at the Metz Fire Trailside Historical Park,
located at the site of the railroad tracks
where the train derailed and passengers
perished.
The narrated tour will take people
to some of these famous sites. For more
information, contact the PICHM at (989)
734-0123.