Great Chicago Fire of sidewalk, 2,000 lampposts, 17,500 buildings, and $222 million in property, which was about a third of the city's valuation in 1871. The value of the property destroyed by the fire is equivalent to $ billion in . Of the 300,000 inhabitants of Chicago in 1871, 100,000 were left homeless, one-third of the population. 120 bodies were recovered, but the death toll may have been as high as 300. The county coroner speculated that an accurate count was impossible, as some victims may have drowned or had been incinerated, leaving no remains. In the days and weeks following the fire,
Hayden Geological Survey of 1871 correspondence was Hayden's Report No. 7 to Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Dr. Spencer Baird, a bit of which is excerpted below: Yellowstone Lake, WY August 8th, 1871 - Dear Professor Baird, Your letters of June 6th and July 3rd were brought us from Fort Ellis by Lt. Doane who has just arrived to take command of our escort and accompany my party the remainder of the season. ... We arrived at the banks of the Yellow Stone Lake "[sic]" July 26th [actually July 28] and pitched our camp near the point where the river leaves the Lake. Hence