The Complicated History of the Cuyahoga River

Print Story by: Tyler Haughn

On June 22, 1969, floating debris covered in oil were ignited by sparks produced by a passing train, causing the Cuyahoga River to catch fire and become one of the most recognized river fires in the history of the United States. The 1969 fire became an event that forever placed the Cuyahoga River as the starting point for the American environmental revolution. Shortly after the fire, Congress passed various water pollution control policies in an attempt to clean America’s polluted waterways. Prior to 1969, the Cuyahoga River was seen as an ideal location for growing communities to pursue economic opportunities. The communities along the river quickly developed as industrial companies also used the river as a dumping site for their waste. The relentless dumping of toxic waste into the river and lack of effective sewage and environmental regulations only exacerbated the conditions of the river as it quickly became polluted and could not support aquatic life in its murky, deteriorated water. Since June of 1969, the story of the Cuyahoga River fire has been distorted and retold in many different ways throughout the generations.

David Stradling, a trained Environmental and urban historian at the University of Cincinnati, has worked to provide accuracy to a story that has been exaggerated since its inception. Stradling is the author of several books, including “Where the River Burned: Carl Stokes and the Struggle to Save Cleveland”, where he discusses the challenges Cleveland Mayor Carl Stokes faced in the buildup to the famous fire and how Cleveland was affected in the following years.

People started to naturally impart meaning to a river catching fire, and this became a shorthand for environmental devastation and industrial America, and Cleveland is at the heart of that story.”

Stradling said the 1969 fire was not the first time the Cuyahoga River was set ablaze. While examining the history of the river, he could not determine the exact number of times the Cuyahoga has caught fire as the local press at the time did not provide coverage of such events unless there was substantial damage. The river may have undergone additional fire damage as Stradling suspects there may have been more instances that were never recorded. The current number of confirmed fires on the river stands at thirteen.  

“Of all the rivers that have caught fire, it is the only one I know that did so frequently,” Stradling said. “From the mid-1800s to 1969, the Cuyahoga caught fire more than a dozen times.”

Interestingly enough, the popularized fire in 1969 was not the most destructive in the Cuyahoga River’s history even though it garnered the most media attention afterward. In fact, the largest river fire occurred in 1952 and caused over $1 million in total damage. In comparison, the 1969 fire caused around $50,000 in damage. The most fatal of the thirteen recorded fires was in 1912 when five casualties were reported.

“At the time, unless there was something really traumatic about the fire or if somebody died, the coverage was purely local,” Stradling said. “So, during the ’30s, ’40s and ‘50s it did not mean anything significant, as far as an ecological crisis is concerned, that a river caught fire. But after the environmental movement, people started to recognize that this is a part of the natural world that they were messing with. People started to naturally impart meaning to a river catching fire, and this became a shorthand for environmental devastation and industrial America, and Cleveland is at the heart of that story.”

Stradling said many large industrial cities around the United States, including Detroit, Pittsburgh and Chicago, have faced similar environmental hazards and had to overcome negative perceptions as well. The only difference was that Cleveland’s reputation stuck in the minds of many citizens across the state of Ohio and around the nation. The 1960s marked a difficult time for the city of Cleveland as it grappled with ongoing racial violence, alarming crime rates, political turmoil and a rapid decline of air quality. When the Cuyahoga River caught fire in the summer of 1969, this proved to be the final push for the start of Cleveland’s turnaround and desire to reshape the city’s reputation and fortunes. The burning river became the symbol for all that was wrong with Cleveland’s urban and industrial environment.

“For the city of Cleveland, I think the river catching fire has been a really important event,” Stradling said. “It gets tied in with lots of other things that are happening in Cleveland at the time that helps to build this very negative reputation for Cleveland as the “mistake on the lake.” It is a reputation that is not well deserved. It is a very prosperous city and even when the river caught fire, it was a very prosperous region in the united states.”

Cleveland initially struggled to cope with the negative perceptions that surrounded the city but its inhabitants eventually grew to adopt the burning Cuyahoga River as its inspiration for environmental restoration and identity. Although the 1969 fire was not the most destructive one throughout its history, it coincided with Americans collectively becoming more eco-friendly.

“Overcoming that very negative national reputation has been something that has informed the way Clevelanders think about their homes and cities in the subsequent fifty years,” Stradling said. “The Clevelanders have taken ownership of the story.”

The history of the Cuyahoga River and the history of Cleveland are inseparable. When the Cleveland-to-Akron section of the Ohio and Erie Canal opened in 1827, the Cuyahoga region became the center for industrial development and was used as an important location for steelmaking and commercial transportation.

“It’s such a small river but yet it is the basis for Cleveland’s growth,” Stradling said. “The exact location of Cleveland is determined by the location of the Cuyahoga River and the ability to create a port there at the confluence of the Cuyahoga and Lake Erie. The Cuyahoga valley provides the northernmost reaches of the canal so it is the valley that provides northern Ohio the connection that will help it becomes an industrial center for not just the state but the entire region.”

Central to the commercial importance of the Cuyahoga River was a proposal originally created in the early 1900s that involved straightening the river to make it easier for 500-foot freighters transporting industrial materials to navigate the winding trajectory of the Cuyahoga’s waterways. The proposal, titled “The New Cuyahoga: River Straightening Recommendations”, claimed that the difficulty of navigating the river made it more expensive to ship materials to and from Cleveland. The proposal was never passed.

“I find it really fascinating that they were going to just blow a channel up through the middle of the valley and straighten the river completely to make it easier for the oar boats to get up to the steel mills,” Stradling said. “It means they would have disturbed an awful lot of private property in the valley and a lot of railroad tracks that meander in and out of the valley.”

Stradling said the Cuyahoga River was not the only polluted river in the United States. The conditions of many of the United States’ rivers were hazardous before the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, which set the precedent that all rivers throughout the country must be clean enough for people to swim and for fish to subsist.

“I think people have overemphasized the Cuyahoga River’s direct role on the clean water act,” Stradling said. “There were so many polluted waterways in the United States when the clean water act was passed. If you’re a congressman from New York state, there was no reason why you had to reference the Cuyahoga because you had polluted waterways in the Buffalo River or the Hudson River, all of these waterways were terribly polluted.”

The Cuyahoga River flows through the heart of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park, a federally protected area of land that exists between 50 square miles within Akron and Cleveland. The national park features various wildlife that lives throughout the sprawling forests, wetlands and canals next to the winding Cuyahoga River.  

Pamela Barnes, the community engagement supervisor for Cuyahoga Valley National Park, said the Cuyahoga River is known throughout the United States and around the world for its connection to large environmental movements that influenced the beginning of sewage and waste regulation that was previously unprecedented.

“What is interesting about the Cuyahoga is that it got a hold of the attention of people around the country and around the world and became a poster child for the environment,” Barnes said. “This is probably what makes it one of the most famous rivers in the world.”

Barnes said the park and the river are equally important to one another. Around 22 miles of the Cuyahoga River runs through Cuyahoga Valley National Park, including the commonly known tributaries Tinkers Creek and Furnace Run.

“The most important thing for people to understand is that the water in the river is something that we all need, and we all use it,” Barnes said. “Clean water is something universal and having an understanding of the watersheds we all own together begins with the national park.”

Barnes said all of the staff management at Cuyahoga Valley National Park have been working together to create a Strategic Action Plan with the ultimate objective of having the Cuyahoga River officially removed from the compiled list of environmental areas of concern by 2021. Environmental areas of concern are geographic locations that must be specifically managed to protect important historical, natural or cultural resources.

“If we can meet all of the requirements to get the river taken off of that list, that is a huge accomplishment in moving us toward that strategic vision,” Barnes said.

The Cuyahoga River does have a polluted past but the combination of vocal citizens and public policy for environmental regulations have led to a remarkable recovery. Since the fire in 1969, the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District has invested over $3.5 billion in restoring and purifying the Cuyahoga River. The river is now home to about sixty different species of fish and the fire in 1969 was the last of its kind.

Elaine Marsh, a co-founder of Friends of the Crooked River, has personally witnessed the worst conditions of the Cuyahoga River and remembers not being allowed to even go near the water when she was a teenager.

“You could not step into the river without worrying that you were going to be covered with sledge and grease and knowing that there was nothing that lived well in the river, so we went from a time like that to a time we have today,” Marsh said. “That happened because of the clean water act.”

Marsh has dedicated her entire 40-year career to advocating for the Cuyahoga River and this has resulted in her receiving the distinguished Life Time Achievement Award from the Ohio Environmental Council in 2005. In 1989, she co-founded Friends of the Crooked River and now serves as the organization’s president. Marsh is also employed by Summit Metro Parks as a watershed specialist, where she works to promote the removal of all obsolete dams and actively works with stakeholders, educates the public and raises funds for various conservation projects.

Without public policy, there is no effective way in a capitalistic system to protect the environment.”

Marsh said her immediate goal when she first established Friends of the Crooked River was to advocate for the removal of all obsolete dams found throughout the Cuyahoga River, correct sewer overflow and encourage local communities to enjoy recreational activities on the river. Friends of the Crooked River was the first environmental grassroots organization of its kind to specifically represent the Cuyahoga River.

“When we established Friends of the Crooked River, there was no other organization that represented the entire Cuyahoga river and worked on Cuyahoga issues,” Marsh said. “Our goal was to advocate for the river.”

Marsh said when the clean water act was passed, it primarily dealt with chemical threats and did not focus on natural issues that could upend the ecological stability of the river. Looking to the future, Marsh said stormwater runoff is one of the biggest problems looming over the Cuyahoga River.

“We don’t have sufficient laws and rules to protect the river from stormwater runoff and from all of the developments in the watershed that encourages this runoff,” Marsh said. “I think it is the challenge for this century. People have to better understand the importance of the living systems of the watershed and how they are irreplaceable to human health. We have to understand that in order to keep public policy and environment intertwined. Without public policy, there is no effective way in a capitalistic system to protect the environment.”

Marsh and her organization have led the initiative to remove four total dams along the Cuyahoga River with a combined cost of around $8.6 million. Removing dams is a complicated process that requires a meticulous investigation into the site, including geologic reviews, engineering studies, hydraulic impacts and cost estimates.

Marsh said the dam Friends of the Crooked River is currently focusing all of their attention on removing is the Gorge Dam, a towering structure originally built in 1914 to provide hydroelectric power for a nearby coal plant. The dam is about 20-feet-wide and 60-feet-tall. As it stands, the Ohio EPA and U.S. EPA have signed an agreement that may lead to the removal of the dam by 2023.

“It is the largest, unresolved issue for water quality on the river itself,” Marsh said. “It is still in the process of being studied but we have every confidence it will be removed.”

Dams have a long history with the Cuyahoga River, as they were first constructed in the 1820s to direct incoming water from the Cuyahoga into the Ohio & Erie Canal. The dams remained in their original places throughout the 1850s as the Cuyahoga and its tributaries were used by local factories. There was no real understanding of how destructive dams are for the surrounding natural environment and ecosystems. With access to better technology and improved biological research methods, it is now understood that dams reduce the amount of dissolved oxygen in the river’s streams, encouraging toxins to linger in the water. This greatly disturbs the aquatic food web and promotes the growth of dangerous algal blooms, among other disturbances.

Marsh said it has not always been easy advocating for the Cuyahoga River but has hope for the future of the river and those who depend on it.

“It has been fifty years since the last time the river burned, that is not a long time in terms of the history of our river—it is around 12,000 years old,” Marsh said. “It is a testament to what can be accomplished if people do have their eyes on the prize and are willing to work together to accomplish their various goals.”