Lightning Strikes at base ball game, killing 5

On Sunday, July 22, 1906 people ventured to Manitowoc’s West Side ball park, located at the corner of 16th and Wollmer Streets, for a baseball game between a Plymouth team and Manitowoc’s Schreihardt Brewery. According to the Manitowoc Citizen newspaper on July 26 1906, about 100 spectators were on site for the game when it started to rain. Soon the rain turned into a thunderstorm.

What happened next was certainly unexpected. The Daily Herald wrote, “It was at 1:30 when the fatal stroke occurred and but for the fact that there were comparatively few on the grounds and less than a dozen in the grand stand or in close proximity to it, the death list would have been much larger.” A bolt of lightning struck the stand, killing five people and seriously injuring four others.