Sunday, September 21st, 1924, is listed on the Wisconsin Watch website as the third worst day of tornadoes in state history. An abnormal fall season storm cell brushed over Wisconsin, producing multiple tornadoes across the state, the largest of which would register today as an F4 on the Fujita Scale, producing winds over 200 miles per hour, travel more than 65 miles through Clark County in central Wisconsin, and cutting a swath of destruction a half mile wide at some points. Stories of more than 200 barns ripped from their foundations, groves of pine trees snapped like matchsticks, and bodies of those killed in the storm tossed over a mile from where they were. At the end of the day, more than 36 people had died, and over 200 people injured, hundreds of head of cattle and horses were dead, and millions of dollars of damage recorded.
Few single communities were impacted that day as much as Three Lakes, Wisconsin, which suffered the worst tornado in its history. On that fateful Sunday afternoon, at approximately 4:30pm, a vortex of fierce winds and sheets of blinding rain took all of 4 minutes to rip down Three Lakes Main Street, wiping clean almost its entire business district. Newspapers of the day called it a cyclone.
Every building of note in the community of some 500 people had been damaged by the drafts, including its bank, hotels, a garage, and others. Its railroad depot was picked up by the high winds and set down on its tracks, box cars were tossed hundreds of feet through the air, and it’s two church steeples, destroyed. The rain, for what it was worth, snuffed out fires that started during storm, which surely would have added to the devastation.
As often happens during tornadoes with little reason, the Dobbs General Store had three of its walls ripped apart, yet shelves stocked with goods remained untouched. Following the destruction of E.L. Greenmans Photography shop, he proceeded to document the damage with his camera, providing many pictures of the event that can be seen today at the Three Lakes Historical Society.
A young Three Lakes boy of 13, Vincent Zebrowski suffered fatal injuries having been struck by flying timber. Several miles south of Three Lakes, in Starks, Mr. and Mrs. Charles Grimes were killed when their home was torn asunder by the winds. Given the impact of the storm, it’s a miracle only three people died, yet hundreds were found to be injured in the aftermath. Outside of Three Lakes, the damage was widespread across the area, as many cottages between Tomahawk and Three Lakes had been blown into the lakes they once sat on. The Rhinelander Box and Lumber Company on the Pelican River east of its city also suffered extensive damage.
Following the cyclone, the area was littered with debris. Roads and rail lines in and out of the area impassable by thousands of downed trees. Phone lines were severed, cutting the town off from outside communication.
Despite the destruction, the community of Three Lakes rallied around its homeless families, and businesses that had lost everything, many of whom didn’t carry insurance. Newspapers across the Midwest reported on the storm that hit Wisconsin, Three Lakes mentioned in nearly all. In the days after, the community began cleanup efforts, and the task of rebuilding before winter arrived.
Door to door Fundraising across Oneida and Vilas County was organized by the Rhinelander Woman’s Club, and the local catholic churches, raising over $6000.00 in the following weeks. A benefit ball was held in Rhinelander in October in support of the families still struggling to get on their feet.
100 years later, the town of Three Lakes still recalls the storm. This month, the Three Lakes Historical Society and other organizations are memorializing the event with the Three Lakes Cyclone Centennial. A Facebook Page was developed, and self-guided walking tour booklet can be picked up at the museum at the Demmer Library, in Three Lakes where you can follow the path of the tornado, viewing the damaged areas then and now, and see the resilience of a community that survived the storm of a century.
Sources: Newspaper Articles, September and October 1924, Three Lakes Historical Society, Three Lakes, WI
