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Environmental Conditions
Broadway Park rests along the Huron River, and slopes gently upward to a narrow plateau just before another uphill climb. The geology, hydrology, and soils of Southeast Michigan were shaped thousands of years ago by the movement of glaciers. Two glaciers intersected where the Huron River divides Central Ann Arbor and Lower Town today. Their retreat, and the uneven land that remained formed the necessary conditions for falling water, and thus, the possibility to create power at this specific location. The rocks and changing water levels provided an easy place to cross the river and to build industry. Yet, along with the river and the falls, a related formation was that of floodplains, which could potentially become polluted by human action. And after years of man-made alteration, environmental degradation of the riverfront is indeed what came to pass.  Reshaping of the Huron River during the Railroads and Mills Era
The Huron River Valley was shaped and reshaped for the construction of industry, the building of the railroad, and later, for the creation of electricity. Ann Arborites channeled the force of the Huron to prevent floods, built dams, millraces, and waterwheels under the mills. The physical landscape was changed, and the river and its floodplains became polluted with the byproducts of the factories, coal residue from the train and carcasses from the slaughterhouses. Land use was given over entirely to mills, slaughterhouses, tool production, tanneries, breweries, rail shipping, and other small businesses that needed water for their operation. The most offending industry, a plant that produced gas from coal built in 1899, left a large part of the floodplain and its adjacent land heavily contaminated. To learn more about mills, industry and the coal burning gas plant, please visit 1860-1910: The Era of Railroads and Mills. To learn more about dams and electricity, please visit The Era of Dams, Electrification, and Parks. |
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