Mahoning River

[sfc_oliver]

The Mahoning river is cleaning itself daily. Mother nature is so much more powerful than man could ever be..

Of course we are helping the process, but regardless it is not the same river we knew in the 60's and 70's...

[Youngstownshrimp]

Nice reading TT, I think I will spend more time being productive in Lake Milton and leave Youngstown to destroy themselves :')

[Towntalk]

In the early 1900's Milton Township was the most sparsely populated of all Mahoning County Townships but it was destined to become a most important subdivision with the development of the Milton Lake property. Downstream, the City of Youngstown was using the Mahoning River as both an industrial and domestic water supply. By 1906 this growing city was experiencing water shortages. The idea was born to create a reservoir upstream thus enabling some control over the flow of the Mahoning River. In 1908, Youngstown began purchasing land in Berlin Township. By 1910, land speculators now aware of the city's plan for a reservoir drove the price of land up forcing Youngstown to abandon its Berlin land purchase. From 1911 to 1913, Youngstown executed its Milton land acquisition of 3,416 acres. The building of Milton Dam began in 1913 and by its completion in 1917 the city had spent $787,000 for this 1,685 acre lake. All was well until 1925 when the State Health Department condemned the water of the Mahoning River as it flowed through Youngstown as unsafe to drink. Plans were immediately put into place for a new domestic water supply and the Meander Reservoir, 10 miles east of Milton, was completed in 1932. Milton Dam still had an important job to do as it continued to control the flow of water to the vast industrial complexes downstream. So important in fact that during WWII a guard was posted at the dam to insure our nations steel production was not interrupted. As an extra precaution, Berlin Lake was formed upstream in 1943. During the next 40 years under the watchful eye of the Army Corp of Engineers and later the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, inspections and upgrades were made to the dam as deemed necessary to insure its stabilization. By 1984 there was little doubt the dam was failing. In early 1986, Milton Dam was breached and a lush green growth began to fill its bed. Youngstown relinquished control of the dam to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. The Ohio Department of Natural Resources began construction of a brand new dam which it completed in 1988. The dam is 2840 feet in total length. The west wing is 325 feet, and the east wing is 1837 feet, each of these earthen concrete covered wings have an average base width of 160 feet. The center cement portion is 678 feet in length with a base width of 60 feet. There are four 36" gates which control this gravity fed dam. The crest of the dam is 951 feet above sea level with the optimum summer pool being 948 feet above sea level. Compare this with the Mahoning River in Youngstown at 839 feet or Lake Erie at 571 feet above sea level. Lake Milton is Ohio's 72nd State Park. It was officially dedicated in June of 1988. The park consists of 1685 acres of water and 1171 acres of land.

[Towntalk]

You're welcome Rick.
What is interesting about it is the fact that even back then there was concern about the quality of the river ... long before today's environmentalists. All this eventually let to the building of resevoirs such as Milton and the elemination of using the river for municipal water.
From what I understand, Milton was the first that the city built or had built.

[Rick Rowlands]

Thanks for the articles.  Good history there.

[Towntalk]

 As far back as 1913 people were aware of  what was happening to the Mahoning River as can be seen in the Vindicator article of July 13, 1913 – HOW THE RAILROADS AND STEEL PLANTS ARE FILLING IN THE RIVER.

After the P & O Canal was abandoned, it was filled in and railroad tracks were layed but that in itself did no harm to the river but it did set the stage for what would later happen.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xrRjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aIEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=6374%2C7560841

(Please scroll up to the top of the page for the article.)

Photos of the river taken in 1889 show a wider river that ran through Youngstown which means that in some 25 years the damage was done, and one can't help but wonder just how much deeper the river was in 1889 before the mills started using it as a dump.

At the same time that the article on the river appeared, just a few pages later, the paper was talking about the new coke ovens that Republic was building at Lansingville, one of the locations that was discussed in the river article.

http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=xrRjAAAAIBAJ&sjid=aIEMAAAAIBAJ&pg=1281%2C7584402