| Page Views: 6,850 Last Visit to Cleveland: - I Used To Live Here | Mistake on the Lake? You be the Judge! by CoAir13 - last update: Oct 29, 2006 |
Western Reserve | Downtown - From West Bank of the Cuyahoga River |
Cleveland was the first settlement founded in the Connecticut Western Reserve (the Western Reserve is the land that is now referred to as Northeast Ohio. In 1662, a royal charter granted all of the land from the Eastern border of Pennsylvania to the Western sea - now the Pacific Ocean - to Connecticut. After the Revolutionary War, most states gave up their western lands received under old royal charters. Connecticut insisted on keeping this part of Northeast Ohio, becoming "Connecticut Western Reserve" until it was sold to a group of investors for $1.2 million in 1795). It was named after General Moses Cleaveland and because of a spelling error on a map, it became known as "Cleveland". The first survey of the area was completed in 1796, but lots were hard to sell because they were being sold for $50. As late as 1800, a company representative reported only 3 men lived in Cleveland. Ten years later...there were only 57 residents. The population didn't grow until after the War of 1812, when the threat of Native American attacks diminished and money was being invested in the harbor (Lake Erie) and roads. During the 1820's the city experienced a population boom due to new forms of transportation which connected Cleveland with other parts of Ohio as well as the East Coast. The Erie Canal connected Cleveland with the Atlantic Ocean and the Ohio & Erie Canal connected it with the Ohio River in the South. In the 1850's, railroads were connecting Cleveland with the rest of the country and within 40 years, the population grew from under 1,000 to more than 40,000. |
|  | Cuyahoga River In the early part of the 1900's, John D. Rockefeller made it possible for oil companies to call Cleveland home. Oil refineries were a big business here. A dirty river was a "sign of prosperity". In June 1969, the Cuyahoga River caught fire. This wasn't the first time, but it was the most famous. There was so much oil in it, it was flammable and at this time was considered to be a "dead" river, meaning there was no oxygen in it to sustain plant and animal life. Since then, the Cuyahoga has made a remarkable recovery. In 1972, the Clean Water Act set forth regulations regarding what could and could not be dumped in the river. It is known as a success story and sets an example for other polluted rivers. |
| Downtown from Edgewater Park |
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CoAir13's Cleveland Travel Tips
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Comments for CoAir13 about Cleveland | | | | |
urvashi123 Sun Feb 22, 2009 11:03 UTC hi there ,I am from Nepal ,nice tips on Cleveland.HHMM PIZZA must be great at Mama Santa's since you have writen it is little italy. | Nemorino Sat Dec 13, 2008 16:16 UTC Happy birthday, Jen. I've just been looking through your many updates to this page since my last visit on Dec. 22, 2005. Over here Cleveland is known for Severence Hall & the Cleveland Orchestra, but not much else. Nice to see there are other attractions. | Razmataac Thu Sep 11, 2008 00:56 UTC Ohh, I see what you mean. Let's hope it doesn't get to that. | nora_south_africa Tue Apr 8, 2008 20:56 UTC great tips love the birds..at zoo |
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