The Ecology of Ann Arbor

In the 1970s, the United States Government began to make suggestions to help improve ecology. Their reasons can be most directly linked to the Depression. During the Depression, government played an active role in providing food for the people. They gave citizens seeds and demonstrated how to successfully grow crops. The Depression was also a time when it was necessary to ration food and other supplies. When America and its allied forces won the war, the remaining gardens that were used to educate people were nicknamed the "victory gardens." Through the years, most of these gardens fell into disrepair. In an effort to revive them and to curb inflation, Congress suggested the revival of such gardening practices in 1972. The crops grown in the gardens could be used as food for the many hungry people. Not only was this revival to have a positive economic effect, but Congress also supportedthe growth of victory gardens because of the positive effect that organic food production would have on the ecology of the Ann Arbor area. Two years previous to this proposal, the Ecology Center was established in Ann Arbor to deal with problems of the ecology like soil erosion and pollution of the air and water. The center's creators hoped that the organization would help to create and maintain healthy environments for all living organisms (Marzolf 24).

Many of these organisms can be found in the bodies of water that surround the Ann Arbor area, including the Huron River. A creek known as "Allen's Creek," named after one of Ann Arbor's founding fathers, leads off of the Huron River and flows through a large portion of the city. The creek stretches from the Huron River near Summit Road to an area near Pioneer High School on Stadium Drive. This creek was responsible for a number of floods throughout the years including two major incidents in 1947 and another in 1968. At times, the water was measured to be four to six feet deep. This caused extensive property damage throughout the area, and many homes and other buildings were damaged by the overflow. As a result, many of the residents began to call for an improved pipe system to handle the drastic increase in water pressure during these floods. The Ann Arbor government officials held meetings to come up with a viable solution to this problem that would not cost the tax payers an exorbitant amount of money (Allen's 44).

(We need some sort of connection here -- also, the time periods are out of order. -Jeff. Revisions by researcher pending as of Dec. 3, 1997)

A major event credited to an Ann Arbor resident was the invention of a vaccine to prevent the debilitating disease, Polio. The year was 1955 and Dr. Jonas Salk, a former University of Michigan student, developed the vaccine and proceeded to prove its effectiveness. On the morning of April 12, Dr. Thomas Francis, Jr., then a University of Michigan professor of Epidemiology, made an announcement to the world at Rackham Graduate School, introducing the vaccine. Addressing the biggest meeting of press members in the history of media, the discovery was relayed to the world that children could now be vaccinated against this disease, a disease that often left victims crippled or paralyzed. "University press representatives began hurling the reports in the air and reporters were catching them on the run towards telephones and teletype machines" (source?). Up until this discovery, people inflicted with Polio often had problems carrying on essential functions like breathing. Machines known as "iron lungs" that had previously been used to help Polio victims breathe could now be moved to attics and other storage facilities (But did the people who already HAD Polio become cured? I don't think they did; the vaccine only prevented the disease. Therefore, the transition between a country greatly affected by Polio and a country who didn't need to worry about it must have been a lot more gradual than you imply here. -Jeff. Revisions pending as of Dec. 3, 1997.) . The March of Dimes organization started a major campaign to help spread the vaccine, and funded the purchase of nine million immunizations for children in the first and second grades attending public and private schools. Within a few years, the number of reported Polio cases was drastically reduced. With the help of the new vaccine, Polio eventually became a disease residents in Ann Arbor and across the country no longer had to worry about (Bush 1).

This picture shows Main Street in 1951 when the drastic increase of automobiles made it necessary to turn the courthouse square into a parking lot.

Ann Arbor was also affected by the invention of the automobile. After its invention in the early 1900s, the automobile industry on the east side of Michigan began to expand rapidly. Henry Ford built many small plants throughout the area where automobile parts were assembled. After Ford's death in 1947, the Ford Motor Company began to sell off the smaller plants and kept only the plant in a nearby town called Northville. This had a negative effect on the area's economy, costing some residents their jobs. They claimed that the Northville plant was useful and beneficial to keep because it produced only small parts that did not require large trucking fleets to transport, therefore keeping overall costs down. As the car was modified and improved, it became more commonplace in society. More families purchased cars, and the industry became extremely successful. Ann Arbor was one city of many that helped create a successful car industry in Detroit (Rueter 33-41). (Why? Because A2 residents were laborers? Because Ann Arbor bought cars and bolstered the car-making industry? Specify here. -Jeff. Revisions pending as of Dec. 3, 1997.)

Editor's Note: Revisions on this document are pending. Editors are currently waiting for revisions of document from researcher.