The Burning Truth of the Cuyahoga...

The story of Cleveland becoming the home of the "burning river" dated back some 40 years when, for the first time, pollution caused the Cuyahoga River to catch fire. Right? Well, one part of this is true. On June 22, 1969, an oil slick on the river did catch fire and subsequently caught the attention of national media. It also burned in 1950 and 1952. But that's just the tip of the iceberg.

"The fire was caused by the water. It flooded some place where was stored some gasoline and carried it down on top of the water to those stills above Wilson Av. to the right as we go in to Cleveland. The water got high enough to carry it in to their fires where it ignited and went down among the tanks below, and as they got hot they blew up and gave their contents to the flames. . . They put timbers across that big creek and threw wood, lumber and anything they found handiest above them into the water and so stopped the surface water and Oil from running down, but they had several acres of burning Oil above. It commenced burning Saturday and we could see the light still Monday morning."

The above account by Alexander Snow in a letter to his son, Fred, wasn't from 1969 or even the 1950s. This blaze touched off on Saturday, February 3, 1883. This was just one fire of the dozen or more on the Cuyahoga since 1868. During the late 19th Century, the river was “so flammable that if steamboat captains shoveled glowing coals overboard, the water erupted in flames” according to author Ron Chernow. Boats were to blame for several of the fires on the sludge-covered river.

Recorded incidents of the river in flames occurred in the following years: 1868, 1883, 1887, 1912, 1922, 1930, 1941, 1948, 1950, 1952, ad 1969. That's more than a century of stories of "the burning river." Yet we only seem to talk about the 1969 fire which led to stricter EPA regulations ad the Clean Water Act. Time and National Geographic magazines widely reported on the last Cuyahoga River fire, which helped it gain such notoriety. In recent time, it inspired "Burning River Pale Ale" made by the Great Lakes Brewing Company.

Rivers flowing through all major industrial cities have been polluted since the mid-1800s when manufacturing boomed. Over the years, the Cuyahoga hasn't been the only "burning river" in the United States. Dearborn, Michigan's Rouge River suffered from several fires. On June 8, 1926, a fire broke out in the Jones Falls area of Baltimore, Maryland, blowing manhole covers off sewer lines and sending a river of flames to the harbor.The Buffalo River burned in 1968 (and July 29, 1880) as did the Chicago River on April 18, 1899 (and many other times, including as recently as 2008) and Philly's Schuylkill River in the 1950s. For as log as mankind has been dumping flammable liquids into our waterways, we've been creating floating infernos.

To call the Cuyahoga the "Burning River" might be accurate, but it's a name synonymous with so many other rivers. Perhaps Cleveland can claim the title for the sheer number of fires on its river. Today, those of use who've been along the Cuyahoga River anywhere between Akron and Cleveland know full well that it's still polluted. Perhaps it won't flare up again, but the root-beer-float-style foam that churns up in some areas is enough to make most people think twice about fishing there. The "Crooked River" is aptly named on so many levels, but we can't say that 1969 was the only year to immortalize a city as the home of a watery inferno.

Most of the information on Cuyahoga River fires was taken from Jonathan Adler's 2003 article 'Fables of the Cuyahoga: Reconstructing a History of Environmental Protection' in the Fordham Environmental Law Journal, Vol. XIV, pages 89-146. The quote attributed to Alexander Snow was published in the book History of the Family of Benjamin Snow (1907; page 126).

Creepy Outback Cryptid Critters...

Nearly every country has at least one story of a mythical or unexplainable creature. Having been separated from any nearby land some 48,000 years ago, Australia is naturally a place of exotic and bizarre animals many of which are found nowhere else on earth. The kangaroo, koala, and platypus were demystified by European colonization but there are other mysteries based on stories passed down by Aboriginal peoples which today remain unidentified beasts of legendary proportions.

Probably the best known cryptid said to roam across the continent is the Yowie: Australia's very own version of Bigfoot (a.k.a. Sasquatch). Named Narcoonah by natives in what is now South Australia this large hairy ape-like creature has reportedly been sighted by white settlers since the 1840s. As more towns sprung up across the country sightings continued to increase and still happen today. It is believed there are at least two "species" of Yowie ranging from the small 4-5 foot tall hominids to enormous 6-10 foot varieties. Yowie researchers believe it's possible that these creatures are some distant ancestor to Gigantopithecus which was native to China around 1 million years ago, intermingled with ancient man, and may have crossed a land bridge to arrive in Terra Australis.

As with reports of Bigfoot, Yeti, and similar creatures scientists say it's impossible for such a large creature to remain unknown and not result in at least one discovery of a carcass over the past few hundred years. That hasn't stopped countless people and researchers from trying to track the elusive animal. Australian Yowie Research and Australian Yowie Research Centre are a few of the many organizations dedicated to collecting reported sightings and hunting for evidence. Josh Gates of Destination Truth even went to Queensland in 2008 to try to hunt down the creature. But so far the only evidence anyone has produced is footprint casts, odd audio recordings, and unidentified images. You would be hard pressed to even find one of the Cadbury variety these days.

But mysterious creatures are not only confined to land. To the north of Sydney lies the Hawkesbury River, known by Aboriginals as Deerrubbun. It has been a popular spot for thousans of years where the Ku Ring Gui and Dharug tribes believed the Dream Time was found. Prized for its abundant seafood the Hawkesbury might hold another aquatic animal. It's said to be the home of a prehistoric monster.

Similar to Scotland's Loch Ness Monster, the Mirreeulla (or "giant water serpent") was introduced by the Dharuk to early settlers through stories of capsized canoes and vessels blamed on a monster of the deep. It's been described in cave art and recollections as a large bodied animal with two sets of flippers,an eel-like tail, and the head of a snake mounted on a long neck—like a living plesiosaur would be envisioned. Reports of the creature happened throughout the 20th century. More recent sightings have occurred in August 2009 and March 2010.

But there are so many others. The legend of a very peculiar creature called the bunyip. Reports of black panthers. Sightings of extinct animals in Tasmania. Australia is a land of oddities, both known and unknown. Who knows what the next fishing line will pull out of a New South Wales waterway? Or what glint of an animal will be caught in car headlights?