Niagara Falls History
History of the Niagara Falls
There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the
falls. According to Iroquoian scholar Bruce
Trigger, "Niagara" is derived from the name given to a branch of the locally
residing native Neutral
Confederacy, who are described as being called the "Niagagarega" people on
several late 17th century French maps of the area. According to George
R. Stewart, it comes from the name of an Iroquois town called "Ongniaahra", meaning "point of land cut in two". Henry
Schoolcraft reported: "Niagara Falls. This name is Mohawk. It means, according to Mrs.
Kerr, the neck; the term being first applied to the portage or neck of land,
between lakes Erie and Ontario. By referring to Mr. Elliott's vocabulary,
(chapter xi) it will be seen that the human neck, that is, according to the
concrete vocabulary, his neck, is onyara. Red Jacket pronounced
the word Niagara to me, in the spring of 1820, as if written O-ne-au-ga-rah."
A number of figures have been suggested as first circulating an eyewitness description of Niagara Falls. Frenchman Samuel de Champlain visited the area as early as 1604 during his exploration of Canada, and members of his party reported to him the spectacular waterfalls, which he described in his journals. Finnish-Swedish naturalist Pehr Kalm explored the area in the early 18th century and wrote of the experience. The consensus honoree is Belgian Father Louis Hennepin, who observed and described the falls in 1677, earlier than Kalm, after traveling with explorer René Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle, thus bringing the falls to the attention of Europeans. Further complicating matters, there is credible evidence that French Jesuit Reverend Paul Ragueneau visited the falls some thirty five years before Hennepin's visit, while working among the Huron First Nation in Canada. Jean de Brébeuf also may have visited the falls, while spending time with the Neutral Nation.
During the 18th century, tourism became popular, and by mid-century,
it was the area's main industry. Napoleon
Bonaparte's brother Jérôme visited with his bride in the early 19th century. In 1837 during the
Caroline
affair a rebel supply ship, the Caroline, was burned and sent over the
falls. In March 1848, ice blockage caused the falls to stop; no water (or at
best a trickle) fell for as much as 40 hours. Waterwheels stopped, mills and
factories simply shut down for having no power. Later that year demand for
passage over the Niagara River led to the building of a footbridge and then
Charles
Ellet's Niagara Suspension Bridge. This was supplanted by German-born John
Augustus Roebling's Niagara
Falls Suspension Bridge in 1855. After the American
Civil War, the New
York Central railroad publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and
honeymoon visits. With increased railroad traffic, in 1886, Leffert Buck
replaced Roebling's wood and stone bridge with the predominantly steel bridge
that still carries trains over the Niagara River today. The first steel archway
bridge near the falls was completed in 1897. Known today as the Whirlpool
Rapids Bridge, it carries vehicles, trains, and pedestrians between Canada
(through Canadian Customs Border Control) and the U.S.A. just below the falls.
In 1912 much of the water coming over the American Falls froze, though there was
still a trickle and the falls ran at the other two sites. In 1941 the Niagara Falls Bridge Commission completed the third current crossing in the immediate area of Niagara Falls with the Rainbow Bridge, carrying both pedestrian and vehicular traffic between the two countries and Canadian and US customs for each country.
After the First
World War, tourism boomed again as automobiles made getting to the falls much
easier. The story of Niagara Falls in the 20th century is largely that of
efforts to harness the energy of the falls for hydroelectric
power, and to control the development on both sides that threaten the
area's natural beauty. A team from the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers dammed the falls in June
1969 in order to clear rock from the base of the falls. Rockslides had caused a
significant buildup of rock at the bottom of the American side of the falls, and
the engineers were to clean up the rock and repair some faults to prevent
eventual erosion of the American side of the waterfall. A temporary dam was
constructed to divert the flow of water to the Canadian side; the dam measured
600 feet across and was made of nearly 30,000 tons of rock. The
engineers cleared the rock debris and tested for safety, finishing the project
in November of that year. The temporary dam was blown up to restore water flow.
Before the late 20th century the northeastern end of the Horseshoe Falls was in the United States, flowing around the Terrapin Rocks, which was once connected to Goat Island by a series of bridges. In 1955 the area between the rocks and Goat Island was filled in, creating Terrapin Point. In the early 1980's the United States Army Corps of Engineers filled in more land and built diversion dams and retaining walls to force the water away from Terrapin Point. Altogether 400 feet of the Horseshoe Falls was eliminated, including 100 feet on the Canadian side. According to author Ginger Strand, the Horseshoe Falls is now entirely in Canada. Other sources say "most of" Horseshoe Falls is in Canada.
ALL IN ALL QUITE A SPECTACLE OF NATURE |