In 2014, northwestern Ohio faced an unexpected environmental crisis: a toxic algae bloom that contaminated the drinking water in and around the city of Toledo for several days. Yet, that environmental nightmare did not develop overnight — the groundwork was set more than a century earlier, when a massive swamp was wiped from the map.
In his book The Great Black Swamp: Toxic Algae, Toxic Relationships, and the Most Interesting Place in America that Nobody’s Ever Heard Of, Patrick Wensink chronicles how an entire swamp ceased to exist, and how that decision would affect the state of Ohio in the years and decades to follow. In this excerpt, Wensink recounts the story of one James B. Hill, who changed the landscape of the region forever, in ways both good and bad.
James B. Hill should be patron saint of Northwest Ohio — or at least patron saint of this story. He invented a machine called the Buckeye Traction Ditcher, and he checks all my boxes…