The Arcade Fire formed in Montreal in 2003 around the husband-wife duo of Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, with Richard Reed Parry, William Butler, Tim Kingsbury, Sarah Neufeld and Jeremy Gara.

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The area remained an unnavigable bog, forcing traders to drag their boats through the mud until 1848, when William Butler Ogden, the mightiest industrialist in the Midwest, backed the first canal that allowed boat traffic to sail straight through.

FORBES: A most unromantic river

Shafts from old mines lie under the region, said Butler County commissioner William L. McCarrier, who worked as a water well driller in the area during the 1970s.

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