Mar 16 2016

Sunset on the Cuyahoga River

Brent

Burning River

Info on the Cuyahoga River from Wikipedia: “The Cuyahoga River is famous for being “the river that caught fire,” helping to spur the environmental movement in the late 1960s. The name “Cuyahoga” is believed to mean “crooked river” from the Mohawk Indian name “Cayagaga,” although the Senecas called it “Cuyohaga,” or “place of the jawbone.” At least 13 fires have been reported on the Cuyahoga River, the first occurring in 1868. The largest river fire in 1952 caused over $1 million in damage to boats, a bridge, and a riverfront office building. On June 22, 1969, a river fire captured the attention of Time magazine, which described the Cuyahoga as the river that “oozes rather than flows”.

The 1969 Cuyahoga River fire helped spur an avalanche of water pollution control activities, resulting in the Clean Water Act, Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, and the creation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA). As a result, large point sources of pollution on the Cuyahoga have received significant attention from the OEPA in recent decades. These events are referred to in Randy Newman’s 1972 song “Burn On,” R.E.M.’s 1986 song “Cuyahoga,” and Adam Again’s 1992 song “River on Fire.” Great Lakes Brewing Company of Cleveland named its Burning River Pale Ale after the event. Water quality has greatly improved and, partially in recognition of this improvement, the Cuyahoga was designated one of 14 American Heritage Rivers in 1998″.

More info:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuyahoga_River

All photos are copyright of  Brent Durken – www.brentdurken.com

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May 15 2013

Mapleside Farms in Brunswick

Brent

 

mapleside Farms brunswick

From the Mapleside Farms website: “Mapleside Farms is a 100-acre fully functioning apple orchard located in Brunswick, OH. Mapleside Farms has long been a destination for families and friends to get together to enjoy a delicious home-cooked meal, fresh homegrown produce, piping hot home baked pies and an amazing view of the Northeast Ohio countryside. It’s the kind of place where children who once came to Mapleside with their grandparents now bring their own grandchildren to share the same traditions”.

Check them out at http://www.mapleside.com/index.php

Today’s Quote:

“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men”. – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Jun 1 2012

Albert W. Henn Mansion

Brent

Albert W. Henn Mansion

The Henn Mansion is one of those treasures that more Clevelanders need to know about. It is vaguely Tudor Revival in style with Bungalow/Craftsman overtones. It is a beautiful home and thanks to some wonderful volunteers it is still around to be enjoyed today. You can even rent it out for special occasions.

From the Henn Mansion Website:

Albert W. Henn was born at New Britain, Connecticut, January 26, 1865. His parents were Francis A. and Barbara Wilhelmy Henn. His father was born at Baden, Baden, Germany, April 1, 1825, came to America a political refugee in 1859. He was a gunsmith by trade and after coming to New Britain found employment in some of the big
hardware manufacturing houses, notably the firm of Russell & Erwin and Landers, Frary & Clark.

Albert W. Henn went to school until he was thirteen years of age completing the eighth grade. The boy went into the factory of Landers, Frary & Clark, covering a period of four years. At the age of nineteen he came to Cleveland and here secured a position as entry clerk with the wholesale dry goods house of Root & McBride, where he remained for thirteen years. During this period he had, apparently, little use for the mechanical knowledge he had secured in his boyhood, but when the opportunity came he found himself thoroughly interested and quite able to apply it.

Mr. Henn was married in Cleveland, April 17, 1889, to Miss Gertrude Jeannette Bruce, and they had six children, their first two sons, Jesse and William died in infancy
leaving three sons and one daughter surviving. Edwin C., a graduate of Cornell University; Howard R. a graduate of Yale University, Jeannette, a graduate of Vassar College; and Robert B a graduate of Cornell University.

Mr. Henn and his brother E. C. Henn patented the Multiple Spindle Lathe, (EC’s invention) which revolutionized the machine tool industry. Then they organized the Acme Machine Screw Company, with E. C. Henn as president and Albert W. Henn as secretary and treasurer. In 1902 they merged their enterprise with the National Manufacturing Company of Cleveland and changed their caption to the National-Acme Manufacturing Company.

Mr. Henn became Secretary of the concern at that time (1908), became treasurer, and was elected president in 1918. He was also treasurer and a director of the Maynard H. Murch Company, investments; president of the Goodhold Farm Company, vice president of the Ohio Muck Farm Company, and a director in the Lincoln Electric Company and the Winton Hotel Company.

For more photos inside the Henn Mansion:

http://www.hennmansion.org/

Today’s Quote: “Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy”. – Norman Vincent Peale


May 30 2012

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo

Brent

cleveland metroparks zoo

Today’s Photo: The Pink Flamingo

From the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo website:

What’s remarkable about a flamingo? Plenty. These birds are pink, have exceptionally long necks and the longest legs, in proportion to body size, of all birds. The beak is uniquely shaped and adapted for pumping and filtering water while feeding on crustaceans and algae in marshes and lagoons. Both in water and on land, flamingos are able to lock their long legs into position for resting and sleeping on one leg.

For info on how you can see more of these amazing birds:

http://www.clemetzoo.com/tour/exhibit.asp?exhibit_id=25

Today’s Quote: Birds sing after a storm; why shouldn’t people feel as free to delight in whatever remains to them? –  Rose Kennedy


Mar 26 2012

Playing Golf in Cleveland

Brent

Cleveland Golf

Northeast Ohio’s beautiful rolling landscape and changing seasons make for some great and challenging golf courses. Make sure that you get out and enjoy all that our area has to offer.

Check out this link for a list of local courses:

http://www.golfmax.com/Golf-Courses/Cleveland-Ohio-Golf-Courses.shtml

Today’s Quote:

If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf. –
Bob Hope


Mar 20 2012

Spring in Cleveland

Brent

 

spring in clevelandSpring in Cleveland

Spring time has officially arrived in Cleveland! Normally that doesn’t mean much because it’s still 40 degrees outside along with clouds and rain. This year however is different because it has been absolutely beautiful outside with record setting temperatures. Make sure to go outside and enjoy the weather and the flowers.

Today’s Quote: “Earth laughs in flowers”. – Ralph Waldo Emerson


Mar 16 2012

Edgewater Park Pier

Brent

Edgewater State Park

Edgewater Park is in the heart of and has one of the best views of downtown Cleveland. In the summer this fishing pier provides access for anglers, and a concession where food and bait can be purchased.

Today’s Quote: “Always remember that the future comes one day at a time”.- Dean Acheson


Mar 15 2012

Buzzards Return to Hinckley

Brent

buzzards return to hinkley

It’s Buzzard Day! Every year on March 15th the world-famous buzzards return to the Buzzard Roost in Hinckley Reservation.

From the Metroparks website: “March 15th is known as the ‘Ides of March,’ but is also internationally-known as the day the buzzards return to their summer roost at Hinckley Reservation’s Buzzard Roost. Grab the binoculars and search the skies with Cleveland Metroparks Official Buzzard Spotter, Bob Hinkle, and Cleveland Metroparks Chief of Outdoor Education as he searches the early morning sky for the first turkey vultures to return for the year. The search begins at 7 a.m. and continues until the first buzzard returns to the roost.”

For more info: http://www.clemetparks.com/events/buzzards.asp

Today’s Quote: “Earth and sky, woods and fields, lakes and rivers, the mountain and the sea, are excellent schoolmasters, and teach some of us more than we can ever learn from books”. – John Lubbock


Mar 5 2012

Cleveland Metropolitan Park District

Brent

Cleveland Metroparks

The history of the Cleveland Metroparks from clemetparks website:

“The oldest park district in Ohio, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District was born in 1917, the initiative of a young, self-taught engineer who had conceived the idea of an outer chain of parks with connecting boulevards some 12 years earlier. William Stinchcomb’s genius was to anticipate the future need for open space at a time when Cuyahoga County outside of Cleveland was still largely rural. From a few scattered donations of land in the Rocky River Valley, the Park District grew to embrace some of the most scenic areas of Greater Cleveland.

Stinchcomb first suggested his idea in 1905 and repeated his plea in 1909. Cleveland, which was then the nation’s sixth largest city, finally formed a park board in 1912 following an act by the Ohio Senate. In April 1912, West Side brewer Leonard Schlather offered to donate approximately three acres of bottom land in the Rocky River Valley.

But, there was a problem. Although the park board had the power to receive gifts of land and property, it had no money of its own and no authority to raise money by bonds or taxation. The park board remained basically dormant for several years.

State law changed in 1915, allowing the Cuyahoga County Commissioners to appropriate money to the park board and in 1916 the first funds were received. Stinchcomb, who had been elected Cuyahoga County engineer, stayed involved in the project as a consulting engineer and developed the “Proposed Cuyahoga County Park and Boulevard System.” The plan showed a continuous parkway encircling Cuyahoga County, threading its way through the Rocky River, Big Creek, Chippewa Creek, Tinkers Creek, Chagrin River and Euclid Creek valleys, and connecting, in two places, with the existing city of Cleveland park system.

In March 1917, the Ohio General Assembly passed a bill providing for “the conservation of natural resources by the creation, development and improvement of park districts.” On June 30, 1917, the Board of Trustees of Euclid Township petitioned the Probate Judge of Cuyahoga County for the creation of the Cleveland Metropolitan Park District. In July, a new park board was appointed and then met for the first time on July 30, 1917. Stinchcomb stayed on as a consultant without compensation.

From its inception through the 1920s, the Cleveland Metropolitan Park Board concentrated its efforts on assembling parkland. The Park District materially took shape during its first decade. In 1920, the Park District held title to just 109 acres of land in Rocky River and Big Creek; by 1930, it had acquired at a cost of $3.9 million, 9,000 acres in nine large, unconnected reservations: Rocky River, Huntington, Big Creek, Hinckley, Brecksville, Bedford, South Chagrin, North Chagrin and Euclid Creek.

The next step, connecting the reservations, would be tackled in years to come.”

For more info: http://www.clemetparks.com/index.asp

Today’s Quote: “All art is but imitation of nature”. -Lucius Annaeus Seneca


Mar 2 2012

Czech Cultural Gardens

Brent

Cleveland cultural gardens

Here is some info from the Cleveland Cultural Gardens website: “Dedicated in 1935, the Czech Garden was designed by landscape architects B. Ashburton Tripp and Maurice Cornell. At the center of a circular lawn, flanked by an Eagle Pylon and a Lion Pylon, is a sculptured frieze depicting the history of the migration of Czechs to the United States. Atop the frieze and facing the lawn are busts of Bedrich Smetana, a composer, Dr. Miroslav Tyrs, an educator and organizer of Sokol gymnastic societies, Jan E. Purkyne, a physiologist, and Bozena Nemcova, a novelist. The garden also contains busts celebrating Frantisek Palacky, a historian and statesman, Anton Dvorak, the composer of the well-known “New World Symphony,” the Reverend Jendrich Simon Baar, a priest and novelist, Karl Havlicek, a journalist imprisoned because of his political views, and Thomas Masaryk, the first president of Czechoslovakia. Most of these statues, as well as the frieze, were the work of Frank L. Jirouch, a Cleveland-born sculptor of Czech descent who sculpted many of the busts in the garden.

On April 1, 1939, the President of Czechoslovakia planted two linden trees from Bohemia in the garden. In 1949, the Czech delegation added the Tyrs, Nemcova, and Purkyne bust, and in June 1962, Masaryk’s statue was added. At the dedication ceremony, United States Senator Frank Lausche lauded the choice of Masaryk, giving the dedication political resonance in the broader context of the raging Cold War. Lausche stated, that The love of liberty lives strong in the hearts of the Czechoslovakian people in America. … Our government will not make any pact for the degradation of Czechoslovak liberty.”

For more information on the Czech Garden: http://culturalgardens.org/gardenDetail.aspx?gardenID=7

Today’s quote is one of my favorites and comes from the garden itself: This Garden is dedicated, to our beloved Czech parents who by their teachings and by precept and example have established for us a high ideal of American citizenship.