HISTORY: How a dying river saved our lives.

Two men wearing life jackets on a small boat on Lake Erie, 1976. Both the boat and the men are covered in oil polluting Lake Erie. Image courtesy of Cleveland State University Library Division of Special Collections.

When the oozing Cuyahoga River caught fire in 1969, consider that it might not have even made the "Top 10" list of Cleveland river fires at the time.

A spark ignited pollution on the Crooked River on June 22, 1969—but few today realize that it actually was the thirteenth time it had happened.

Thirteen times. Take that in for a moment. The river had once been so polluted and abused since the 1860s that tar-black layers of filth burned on its surface on at least 13 other occasions.

BASEBALL: Burn on, big river. Burn on.

Cleveland, baseball, and Randy Newman are forever linked.

Ever since Major League hit the big screen in 1989, Newman's song "Burn on" (1972) has come to be synonymous with Cleveland, the Cleveland Indians, and the start of summer.

For us and our responsibility to protect Lake Erie, it means something more.

The song is based in part on the Cuyahoga River fire of 1969 and the awful state of our lake and river at the time. Just like the fictional Lou Brown's and Jake Taylor's Indians, the lake and river have made major improvements the region can be proud of.

Pollution may still be the New York Yankees of the challenges Lake Erie faces, but we do have a plan.

Remembering the 1969 Cuyahoga River fire

Two vintage clips from Cleveland's NewsNet5 show footage from the 1969 blaze and a 1989 follow-up story on the fire anniversary.