Chapter 7. Returning from California to Canada

All was left behind and we took passage over the Union Pacific Railway for Canada, a trip which took us thirteen days and fourteen nights travelling with a lay off for most of one day Chicago where we changed from the UPR to the Grand Trunk. The big fire that had destroyed the greater part of the city had taken place the year before and at this time there was nothing but ashes and ruins of burned buildings.

The Great Chicago Fire

The summer of 1871 was very dry, leaving the ground parched and the wooden city vulnerable. On Sunday evening, October 8, 1871, just after nine o'clock, a fire broke out in the barn behind the home of Patrick and Catherine O'Leary at 13 DeKoven Street. How the fire started is still unknown today, but an O'Leary cow often gets the credit.

The firefighters, exhausted from fighting a large fire the day before, were first sent to the wrong neighborhood. When they finally arrived at the O'Leary's, they found the fire raging out of control. The blaze quickly spread east and north. Wooden houses, commercial and industrial buildings, and private mansions were all consumed in the blaze. 

 The Rush for Life Over the Randolph Street Bridge, 1871 (Harper's Weekly, from a sketch by John R. Chapin)

In crossing the plains of Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa - all the unsettled - we could see herds of Buffalo in every direction and antelope would run along side the train for miles at a stretch. There was also the prarie dogs sitting up at their holes watching the train go by. It was a great disappointment to myself and some other boys that the train never stopped out on the praries so that we could examine these prarie dog holes as it was said that every hole was occupied by an owl and a rattle snake but there were plenty of little grey owls buzzing around. In crossing the Rocky Mountains we saw the first snow we had seen seen since leaving Canada four and a half years before - the tops of the mountains being little covered though it was mid August.
American Bison skulls, circa 1870

 The annihilation of the vast Buffalo herds offered a dual benefit to the United States, the killing of the Buffalo also helped destroy Native American societies.