Pathways to progress: The Great Lakes; Region of the inland seas

Through the facilities of this station and the National Association of educational broadcasters Michigan State College presents a pathway to progress. Of a grant from the fund for adult education an independent organization established by the Ford Foundation radio station WKRN by recording brings you the Great Lakes pathways to progress.

Hear this song. The Great Lakes region posts a dynamic composed by the labors of millions of people working together in the home of all the diverse songs of business activity. The beauty of nature and the utilization of natural resources. Glorious past promising future. Last. Time the theme. Song of the Great Lakes region. Pathways to progress. This is first in a series of radio programs dedicated to the

story of the great American region the Great Lakes and their pathways to progress. The Great Lakes beautiful blue and white expanse of a fertile Greenland. These five huge inland lakes are many things to many man. And land of the sky blue waters that carried Hiawatha the high roads of commerce where great ships heaving forward on the vital voyages of industry leave long trails of dusky black smoke slowly. Home forty five million people. The heart of industrial America. Region of great Midwestern cities rich land of the good things of life from an inexhaustible horn of planning and allowing Sturrock traditions of the trails to the future and built the destiny of a continent. Integral to the growth and strength of these United States indispensable to the American people and their fabulous economy. The Great Lakes

play an important role in history that's paramount in the life of America. This region is a vital culmination of America's historic destiny as the strongest bastion of freedom on the face of the earth. These are the Great Lakes. Halfway to progress. The Great Lakes region scene of a story of tremendous human effort and accomplishment. A story of nature's power and her wealth. A fascinating drama played on a huge natural stage. Let's view this spectacular canvas painted by the brushes of nature in the hand of mankind. Let's listen closely to the song of life that's heard throughout the region and all its variations on themes telling the story of a remarkable pageant of life in the living. First viewing shows the setting provides a panoramic sight of the amphitheater itself.

Nature staged all the drama unfolding here in our land here in the region of the inland seas. Alone you see along a sandy shore line and plays out over a rippling blue expanse stretching far beyond the horizon the big lake is his home. It gives him the other necessities of his habitat. The cry of The Seagull is a keynote to a song that relates to the lonely and the stillness as the call flies higher and higher still and glides gracefully aloft looking down upon me or inspiring seen below as wings. Fire Great Lakes lying along the north central border of the United States stretching a third of the continental length and eleven hundred sixty miles of the waterway huge nice ninety six thousand square miles the largest body of fresh water seniors in the world. These lakes are the silent resting place of a dance and longs and played out and yet cradle to the unborn history of the

future. These legs carry the explorers canoe traders back toll altering an open doorway to early exploration and settlement. These lakes carried the French and British ships of war that brought up the question of ownership of the new world. These lakes carried an early sailing trade that rivaled in size a number of the ocean going vessels of a growing America. These lakes today carry the urgent cargoes of industry and the pipe holds of great ships or Great Lakes. Ninety six thousand square miles of water the trails of trade and the paths of the future to the American way of life. Strong wings of the gull May saw through the air above Lake Superior the largest of the Great Lakes thirty one thousand eight hundred twenty square miles or Lake Huron second largest with 23000 square miles of freshwater surface or Lake Michigan Erie or Ontario. This flight may carry the governor of Great Lakes breakwater where a man joins a bird in the quest for fish or the lower of the lake

says passed from father to son. It isn't like you ever want to get what I mean like here where we are now it is not. That some of the neighborhood the deepest place is under 10 feet. Deeper than that. As a matter of fact I did. Find out.

This very question. You can. Yes thank you. There's a lake Ontario. It's called the Canal. It's in Canada somewhere near Niagara Falls. But the biggest ship sailed through that into Lake Ontario right down the river and into the Atlantic. We're going to go for gold. I think it's a good job but you have to work.

Mr. Cohen they were demanding spectacular one Dennis Ross in this region the hand of nature high pitched call is drowned out in the roaring dark cousins of mine hear Niagra muted melody that utilizes this background to weaving the tender tones of romance. Here's some honey make Ontario the smallest of the Great Lakes 7500 square miles of water so it has a maximum depth of seven hundred and thirty eight feet. It's bordered on the north by a large section of the province of Ontario the most heavily populated province. Isn't that fascinating. I'm sure that's all very interesting darling but we are on our honeymoon. I know that's why why what. That's why I want to know. So I can remember every bit of it for ever. You know I love you. I happy very happy. I've always dreamed of a honeymoon

as tomorrow I feel like I have right here that Ontario is the industrial heart of your heart I'm interested in doing right. I'll stop reading it if you are a very good bargain. Niagara Falls a romantic spot for a good many homeowners. And yet this mighty waterfall will also supply electric power for the homes of these newlyweds may build within the region might ignite a beauteous resource. But this region is not all water. These Great Lakes are surrounded by an expanse of land embracing a powerful and rich to portion of the continent. Some 300000 square miles of land. This includes western New York state western Pennsylvania and northern parts of Ohio Indiana and Illinois Eastern Wisconsin eastern Minnesota all of Michigan and a

vast reach of southern Ontario province of Canada. This is an area with tremendous resources as diverse as the treasure chest of an Oriental potentate in the ground there's iron copper coal oil lead salt limestone zinc clay granite Pipestone nickel platinum silver gold and uranium and growing from the ground our great forest lands of lime timber. The ground itself provides the millions of acres of the finest farmlands in the western hemisphere. This land region stretching beyond the dozen horizons ranges over great portions of eight states and the major problems of Canada. The very names bespeaks strength and greatness. Land of the Indians the state home of nearly 4 million people.

The great city is great factories and great farms with Indianapolis Gary Ford Wayne Evansville and Kokomo. Illinois land to be aligned I land of man the prairie state home to more than 8 million people with vast productive factories and great cities with Chicago Peoria Rockwood Springfield and East St. Louis. Wisconsin gathering of the waters the Badger State Dairy LAND OF THE NATION home of over three and a half million people with Milwaukee medicine and Kaiser.

Sure Minnesotans Scott I attended water the Gopher State the North Star State the bread and butter state home of three million people home of Minneapolis St. Paul Duluth and Pipestone County. Michigan Land of the great lake the Wolverine State home to more than six million people with thriving cities rich farms and great factories with Detroit Grand Rapids Flint Lansing and Interlochen Michigan nation's playground central state of two peninsulas in the Great Lakes region.

Pennsylvania William Woodland the central state of the old original thirteen United States the keystone state with 10 and a half million people with Philadelphia. Pittsburgh you're a Scranton and Punxsutawney. New York named in honor of the Duke of York the Empire State home to almost 15 millions first in the nation with great cities too like New York Buffalo Rochester Albany m Brooklyn holder a great farms and great factories with two front doors one to the world the east and one to the Great Lakes and the Midwest of the Western and. Ohio. The word itself from the Indian meaning great. The Buckeye State almost 8 million with Cleveland Cincinnati Columbus Toledo Akron and

Sheila cafés. You or Terry are beautiful only the garden of Canada home to nearly one third of Canada's people with great cities great factories and great news with Toronto Hamilton and Sioux St. Marie. Yes their names bespeak their strength from the great mass of US states that lie an all or part in the Great Lakes region. They comprise a theatre of nature with a dazzling setting fashion than the myriad shadings of nature's breathtaking

scenic designer of 2001 is rich in its waterways in resources and in the priceless wealth of nature because we use the human's spirit. I go in as a graceful flight smoothly climbing a little higher as the sunlight flashes brilliantly against his gleaming wings and once again his high clear call penetrates the fresh morning air above the lakes. It's perhaps a modern long since faded sounds of the past gigantic sounds that would have bore the sea goes plaintive cry. The great glaciers of the Ice Age played out a crushing thunderous drama in this region millions of years ago a drama of tremendous force and size that saw the gigantic elements forming the North American continent as we know it today.

At one time there were no great lakes. Once long ages ago the region was a salty sea but that sea had been lifted high and dry and barren but the roaring rumbling in the bowels of the earth. What actually happened in those days so long ago. We can never really know. But geologists believe that the area was drained by great rivers which formed broad valleys similar to the Ohio River valley of today. Remember there were three big pre Ice Age rivers one developed along the northwestern portion of Lake Superior another with head waters near eastern Lake Superior dug out a broad valley southward that was later to become Lake Michigan. The third river plowed the belly that would become Lakes Ontario and Erie river branches from the north were eroding the basins with Georgian Bay and Lake Huron. These great rivers have been gone at least a million years. They were wiped out but the ice sheets of the glaciers but they left the valleys which would serve as basins for the Great Lakes. A

million years ago the northern hemisphere grew extremely cold and. One can only guess why. But the long cold caused three great ice sheets to form over the top half of the globe one vast ice layer formed along the west coast of North America. A second build up west of Hudson's Bay and is called the kilowatt and sheet. The third Labrador formed its icy expanse in Northeast Canada. This woman who had a world after year century after century the snow piling up faster than a week's summer sun could melt. The great mass of snow. Until it was literally miles deep. These were the conditions bringing about the ice age. But dense weight and the extreme cold of the snow bass turn the underlying layers to ice. Sheets that approach all directions from under the huge mass. The Labrador slowed somewhat inching its way

along over the miles and through the years and reaching as far south as northern Pennsylvania southern Ohio Illinois and Indiana. But to watch him she gradually covered all the Western Lakes area and the plains states to the west. The Titanic masses of ice overspread the region where ice formed thicker and harder in the ancient river valley is exerting more pressure digging deeper gouging wider. The ice pushed down over the region retreated pushed down over again. How many times it did so is one of the riddles of the unnumbered century. But scientists know there were at least three invasions and perhaps as many as six months of. Last invasion of ice is known to have started about 100 years ago and when it finally retreated northward it left behind the Great Lakes. This ancient waterway far different than we see today would be the opening for early exploration. A passageway for the footsteps of man searching for his promised land and the glaciers left behind not only the Great Lakes but thousands of

small ones as well. Northern Michigan Wisconsin and Minnesota are dotted with some 30000 inland lakes that enrich their interiors and contribute to the pleasure and productivity of life. The heritage from the glaciers also includes the fertility of many farmlands and the ice masses level the land scooping off the tops of hills and dumping them in the valleys rolling plains acreage on deal for farming. The I stooped out soil from the Great Lakes basins and dumped it over the countryside around there to wait the hand of man that would tell it to a rich harvest. Grade Lebrun door and walk in ice sheets of the glacial age role with Titanic force don't know where these areas are before the dawn of time. Far before the life of my bus left the region with a super abundance of abandoned natural resources busted Nate's here and there most far reaching again to prepare the scene and the setting of a life

that would be played in the Great Lakes region. Will see you girls lie as higher in the blue sky above the blue water beneath his graceful wings they stretch as a fascinating Panorama a kaleidoscope of activity a gigantic pattern of busy life long high columns of smoke mark out the course of an iron ore boat sailing down the lake with the stuff of steel. Another wisp of smoke blends into the ship's long dusky trail from the high stacks of a factory squatting along the lake shore and yet another smoke trail joins the first two climbs upward from a roaring blast furnace grilling steel with smoke trails fade into the opportunists are accompanying silence filled the air around the smoke stacks its noonday and the Great Lakes. The sun shines high overhead but the breeze is assault. Mankind is

hungry. We're hungry too you know. Come on let's get over there and eat you know the way you eat take about three hours to fill you up. Oh yeah. That's because I work hard enough to get up an appetite. Fifteen years I've been working every day. Good work. Fifteen years. I didn't know you'd been here that long. Well I have and I'm going to be here for at least 15 more like working for the biggest sea in case you jokers didn't know it. Gary Mills is the biggest deal maker in set up in the world and he's got the appetite to match the Great Lakes region the steelworkers take their lunch hour at Gary Indiana would be the same saucer called Cleveland Youngstown. All the Canadians to St..

In the Great Lakes region but not always immobility. Well this area poses the finest transportation facilities in the world. Trains from the biggest rail center of the world at Chicago to the whistle stop of the USA and ships that sail forth on the Great Lakes waterways themselves to and from the Great Lakes ports ports which handle more freight every year than the combined ports on the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific coast and went to this region is the native habitat of the automobile. He was born here in the Great Lakes region. I have run a feller up oh yeah you bet your regular joes regular for this buddy Ronnie I'll start buying when I get a caddy. Ray you know it is full of filler up the brief familiar request will be sounded many hundreds of times during this noon hour in the Great Lakes area and even as the gas pumps refill the thousands of waiting cars new cars are

rolling from the assembly lines. Numerous and vital in the region. Detroit Lansing South Bend Toledo Windsor the cities that manufacture about 90 percent of the automobiles in America. An endless line of sleek modern cars to supply the always growing demand of an America on the move and their brother of a four year old the tractor the cornbelt farmer the truck farmer the Fruit Grower the wheat producer and the dairy farmer. These two are at work each day in the region growing corn to feed livestock that will in turn people families of a continent growing wheat that will feed the Minneapolis plough or mills the buffalo grain plants bread that will feed millions and tilling the land that supplies the Great Lakes on the plant. Really this is the do that oh I heard that let's get up with a smile that you're a guy and I mean today noon time for 45 million people.

The lunch hour in the Great Lakes region at sea is the fascinating drama of everyday life in the living unfolding against the broad sweeping background of America's heart. Life singing it's an ending song filling the air with a strong humming hurrying pounding clanging symphony attuned to the throbbing heart of a modern industrial age the pace is well and strong. It builds a mighty rhythm that's reflected in the laboring of the grain Reaper and in the massive mills that process and store the grains from the fields pace and rhythm and melody melody in the factory is on the mills on the Hammers ringing on the metal has dug from Great Lakes grown I own from a Saab a copper from the quay when our gold and silver from Ontario melody in the purring roar of millions of motors and billions are rolling wheels in the sawmills high pitch drawn as the blade slays through the timber of a lake states forest land. Melody and the sounds of the cities the Great Lakes cities. And in this song of life there's

harmony to harmony and the ways of life develop of the region's people. Harmony of purpose expressed in the cultural development that's the pride of the region a great schools and universities that teach the way to get better richer lives. And here in this region is harmony with God and the universe. The spiritual seeking expressed in great cathedrals and little churches in a region where free men worship here are towering monuments to man's faith and the Creator's blessing a spacious tabernacles and a little brown church. This is the land of big lakes Blue Waters. Forty five million people part of industrial North America the great lakes. And this is the region the region

is. Listening year we'll hear it played in the stirring and inspiring in its vitality and blending everyone into the promise of the. Cadences rise and fall. The tempo changes from past. And back to fast return and continue. The Great. Progress. You have just heard pathways to progress. The first of a series of programs devoted to the Great Lakes and the people who have made this region such an outstanding area.