The Cuyahoga River Fire, Earth Day, the Clean Water Act, and Beer

• In Event: Summer of ’69: Iconic Environmental Events 50 Years Later

Abstract

In June of 1969 the Cuyahoga River caught fire for what we hope is the last time. Coming as it did during the nation’s great environmental awakening, this Cuyahoga fire, unlike most of the previous fires, eventually gained national, even international attention. Described in the halls of congress, disparaged in national magazines, and mocked on television, the polluted Cuyahoga became a poster child of the degraded industrial environment. Just as important, Cleveland itself, engulfed in air pollution and surrounded by troubled waters, became emblematic of the urban environmental crisis. In the fifty years since, the river fire has evolved into an explanatory event – a contributing factor in the great success of Earth Day the following year and a major impetus for the Clean Water Act two years after that. More recently, the Cuyahoga has taken on a new narrative, one that emphasizes recovery and rebirth, a symbolism Clevelanders use to describe the return of life to the river and the long declining urban core. Perhaps most interesting, many Clevelanders have taken a more playful approach to the fire, the pollution, and the crises gone by, as the “Burning River” adorns a favorite local beer, an endurance run, even a lacrosse league. All of this is part of the complicated legacy of an event that many still find shocking and incomprehensible.

Author

• David Stradling, University of Cincinnati