The burning river that fueled a US green movement
UC’s David Stradling cited as expert on the Cuyahoga’s role in environmental protections
An article by the BBC takes the reader back to the late 18th and 19th centuries, when prosperity in the United States was defined by the industrial revolution — a time with little regard for the pollutants that came with industrial expansion.
The article focuses on Ohio’s Cuyahoga River as the origin story for the U.S. environmental movement. The river was once so polluted by human and industrial waste that it caught fire on multiple occasions.
"The Cuyahoga was a completely dead river for decades," David Stradling, professor of history, says in the article. He says, "there were no fish, no water fowl" and the article states that those who lived nearby cautioned that if you fell in, you had to be rushed to the hospital.
Incidents of fire on the Cuyahoga were the precursor expanding The Clean Water Act in 1972: "It was late summer (1969) when Time magazine ran a story about water pollution in the United States," using photos from a prior Cuyahoga River burn, says Stradling, who co-wrote “Where the River Burned”, a history of the infamously polluted Cuyahoga, with his brother Richard Stradling.
Featured photo at top: Cleveland and the Cuyahoga River/iStock.
Impact Lives Here
The University of Cincinnati is leading public urban universities into a new era of innovation and impact. Our faculty, staff and students are saving lives, changing outcomes and bending the future in our city's direction Next Lives Here.
Related Stories
One in four NFL players had CTE at death
August 25, 2026
Forbes cites research on concussions and football helmets by the University of Cincinnati in a report that found one in four NFL players had brain damage at death.
How UC's co-op model can benefit small businesses
August 25, 2026
The Business of Home recently dove into how a Chicago-based interior design firm benefits from UC's co-op model.
Roman law expert pieces together ancient legal history
August 25, 2026
UC Classics scholar Matthijs Wibier reconstructed and translated a 1,600-year-old Latin legal text from Egyptian parchment fragments at the Penn Museum, revealing previously unknown Roman tax laws.