My mother was born and raised in Cleveland Ohio. She remembers very well when the Cuyahogo River caught on fire. It was the day of June 23, 1969. The river was very dirty, and contaminated. There had been a lot of waste dumped into the river form the surrounding industrial companies. However, the day that the river was on fire, the fire is said to have been up to five stories high.
However, according to my mother this event was blown completely out of proportion. Songs, tails and even pictures developed from this event. This song about the river began to be sung all around the town.
Theres an oil barge winding
Down the Cuyahogo River
Rolling into Cleveland to the lake
Cleveland city of light city of magic
Cleveland city of light youre calling me
Cleveland, even now I can remember
Cause the Cuyahoga River
Goes smokin through my dreams
Burn on, big river, burn on
Burn on, big river, burn on
Now the Lord can make you tumble
And the Lord can make you turn
And the Lord can make you overflow
But the Lord cant make you burn
Everyone knew the song, both the children and the adults. The song did two things. First, it scared people away from Cleveland. My mom remembers kids from her school moving to different cities and outsiders no longer wanted to come to Cleveland. Second, the song brought forth the real reason why the fire started; people were dumping trash into the river. This is evident in the lines about the Lord. The Lord can make the river, tumble, turn and overflow but the Lord cant make it burn. Only the people can make the river burn, by dumping their trash into it.
This event, over the years developed into a haunted story Cleveland became the town that nobody wanted to live in; it was dirty and contaminated. Pictures were even found of enormous flames that claimed to be of the Cuyahoga River but in fact were developed to scare the people.
http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1642
March 2007