12-06-2025
On This Date: One Of America's Deadliest Tornadoes Strikes Wisconsin Town Hosting A Circus
One of America's deadliest tornadoes tore through a Wisconsin town hosting a circus more than 125 years ago.
Gollmar Brothers Circus was in New Richmond, Wisconsin, on June 12, 1899, bringing a larger number of people to the town than usual.
Before hitting New Richmond, three people were killed by the tornado on farms near Burkhardt and Boardman. The twister then carved a path through the middle of New Richmond just after the circus ended, according to the National Weather Service in Milwaukee.
About 300 buildings were damaged or destroyed along a path 3,000 feet long and 1,000 feet wide through New Richmond. Incredibly, a 3,000 pound safe was said to have been carried a full block away.
A total of 117 lives were lost in the tornado, making it the 9th deadliest on record in the U.S., according to NOAA's Storm Prediction Center
Flying debris from the tornado killed many of the 117 people, and 26 separate families had multiple deaths. The NWS says the tornado was easy to spot and that this may have kept the death toll from being even higher.
Chris Dolce has been a senior digital meteorologist with for 15 years after beginning his career with The Weather Channel in the early 2000s.
