Friday, April 17, 2015

How about this pic. Where is it at?



No. It's not Niagara Falls.
But, it is a US National Park…in the mid-west.

Here is a little closer look, showing that a road & bridge pass over it.

It is, in fact, the 14th most visited National Park, according to the Ranger.

That is because it is just outside of Cleveland. In fact it is along a canal build in the early 1800s to connect Akron to Cleveland, and this the Ohio Valley to the Great Lakes, then through the Eerie Canal all the way to Atlantic.  (The canal bypasses the waterfall.)





This one is the Cuyahoga Canal and is the one just to the east of the middle of the state. 



In the mid to late 1800's the railroad was build next to it and its importance dwindled slowly till the 1930's. 

In the 1970's they made a walking path along the railroad and edge of the canal that extends for at least 20 miles. That is why it is so busy: the Cleveland locals use it as their playground.




But, you might have heard of the the Cuyahoga River for another reason. 
In 1969 the river caught fire. 
Now, that was not unusual for this river. It started doing this in the late 1800's because the plants making lamp oil form petroleum didn't know what to do with the gasoline byproduct…so they let it go into the river for decades.

The fire in 1969 was a small one, by it's standards. But it did raise quite a ruckus.
It was a small article in Time Magazine, in the same issue as the Chatapucquick incident
So lots and lots of people bought that issue to learn the gossip on the Kennedy's relation to that young lady's death. 
And they read about this burning river as a side article in that issue.

Well, the activists took on the issue and that is how the EPA and many other conservation organizations got started, as a result of this river, back in the 1970's.

Hope you learned a little something,…from an unknown national park to us, to what is Cleveland's playground, and what got protection of the environment started….right here in the middle of the Ohio Valley!

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