at the
Great Lakes Industrial History Center

Cleveland Press Collection

"It has always been my opinion that the shortest, easiest and least expensive communication with the invaluable back country would be to let the courses and distances be taken to the mouth of the Muskingum and up that river to the carrying place to the Cuyahoga, down the Cuyahoga to Lake Erie."

-George Washington

Thirteen thousand years have passed since the creation of the Cuyahoga Valley, as the glaciers receded at the end of the last Ice Age. Since that time, the Cuyahoga River has wound its crooked way north to Lake Erie. This site provides a gateway to resources which document a variety of the effects which the Cuyahoga River has had upon the communities along its banks.

Exhibit Rooms

In each of the exhibit rooms you will find links to resources available in the Cleveland Digital Library and in the Cleveland State University Library Special Collections.

Accidents and Disasters
This area includes photographs of the Cleveland Fire Department's fire tugs and of the infamous Cuyahoga River fires.

Airviews
This group of images provides a gull's-eye view of the Cuyahoga River and Downtown Cleveland.

Bridges Over the Cuyahoga River
This group of images from the Watson Bridge Book Collection illustrates the prominent presence of bridges in the course of the Cuyahoga River.

Maps of Cuyahoga River
This area contains maps of the Cuyahoga River in both high and low resolution formats..

Engineering the Cuyahoga River
This area contains documents, maps and images which record the efforts of the City of Cleveland to straighten the "Crooked River".

The Upper Cuyahoga
This area contains a group of photographs showing a variety of locations along the upper stretch of the Cuyahoga River.

The following rooms are currently under construction and will be online soon.

Ecology and Geology of the Cuyahoga River

Industrial Land Use

Irish Town Bend

Recreation and Tourism on the Cuyahoga River

The Cuyahoga River and the Ohio & Erie Canal