June 22, 1969

Many of us remember it with a bit of a chuckle. Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River caught on fire. What I didn’t realize is that it wasn’t the first time that the river through downtown Cleveland burst into flames. Apparently the first eight, nine or ten times
(depending on your source), no one thought it odd.

As scary as it is to say, the Cuyahoga is not the only river in America to burn. The Providence River, in central Providence, Rhode Island has also been known to flame up. Apparently, they intentionally burned it from time to time, just to “clean it up”.

Add to that the North, Chicago, Buffalo, Fallsaway, and Passaic Rivers and you get a pretty grim picture of the United States’ history of abusing its rivers.

Let’s all give us a hand for doing a little better these days!