Free Republic

...“It’s such a victory for the river,” said Elaine Marsh, a watershed resource specialist with Summit Metro Parks. Marsh is one of the founding members of Friends of the Crooked River, a nonprofit organization focused on giving a voice to the Cuyahoga River....

The headstone, etched with the name Thadius Peck (1711-1781), was discovered by Richard and John Ryan on April 18 as they were walking along the river looking for an old fishing spot. The two came across an "odd-shaped stone" in a clearing across from the river and took a closer look. They cleaned off the muck and moss that had grown on it, and realized it wasn't just a flat rock but a headstone for someone who had been dead for 241 years.The stone is so old, it predates the founding of Cuyahoga Falls by three decades. It's even older...

On June 22, 1969, just before noon, an oil slick and assorted debris caught fire under a railroad trestle on the Cuyahoga River. The fire attracted national media attention, including stories in Time and National Geographic. The image of a river ablaze seared into the nation's emerging environmental consciousness. Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Carol Browner probably spoke for many Americans when she said "I will never forget a photograph of flames, fire, shooting right out of the water in downtown Cleveland. It was the summer of 1969 and the Cuyahoga River was burning." The Cuyahoga fire was a...