Niagara Falls, NY - Over the Falls in a Barrel

Strapped into a steel-strapped oaken barrel with an anvil in the bottom so she’d go over the falls feet, Annie Edson Taylor emerged at the bottom of the Falls at 4:30 pm on October 24, 1901, her birthday, the first person to go over Niagara Falls. She emerged from the barrel with only a small scratch which she got when they had to hammer the barrel open.

She was 63, her husband had died and she was struggling. What to do? How to make a living? How to survive? Well, she kept hearing about those two marvelous falls between New York and Canada and the wheels began to turn. Aha, she had her idea for fame and fortune. She designed her own barrel with straps inside to hold her in, padding to make her comfortable, a lid that screwed on so it wouldn’t come off, gave the plans to a cooper and, voila, she had her barrel. She had two friends put her in above Horseshoe Falls (the ones that didn’t have the rocks at the bottom - smart woman) she jostled through the rapids and headed over the falls themselves. She said she blacked out then and really didn’t remember going over the falls.

At the bottom, they pulled her to the shore, hammered the barrel open and she sprang out in her best black dress, Sunday hat and with only a slight scratch on her forehead. Here’s where here plan goes wrong. Her manager had put it out that she was 46, stole her barrel and then hired a woman of 46 to travel the country with the story. Oops. Annie was 63 and no one believed that she was the 46-yr old woman who had gone over the falls. She spent most of her money hiring detectives to recover her barrel.

Her manager got wealthy touring the country and she died destitute.

Her advice to others: ‘Don’t try it.’

I am not about to try that, I clue you. We saw the falls to day and hurtling over those falls in a barrel is not my cup of tea. But, standing on the side and wondering at them, WOW, count me in.

Neither Gary nor I have ever seen Niagara Falls though we bustled by many times when we lived in New England and were making the 26-hr straight-through drive to Iowa for Christmas. But our goal was getting back to Iowa, not enjoying the journey. (And, believe you me, between the snow, the ice, the bone-chilling cold and trying to sleep in a car, there was not much to enjoy.) Today, our goal is still to get back to Iowa but we’re enjoying the journey and stopping to explore.

Because the weather looked dicey in the afternoon, we began the day with different plans but decided to reconnoiter in Niagara Falls to see what we wanted to do tomorrow. We got to Niagara Falls, hit the VC and got a good map and then began our walk. First out to Prospect Point where we got our first views and sounds of the Falls.

We met 2 very interesting people on our walk around the park: Annie Taylor herself and Celinda Whitney who also has a most interesting story. She and her 2 sisters were the first American settlers to have walked across 3 small islands in the Niagara River as it roils its way down to the Falls. They walked across in the winter when there was ice but it was still a treacherous journey given the rocks and rapids in the Niagara.

It’s very obvious that the best views of the Falls is from the Canadian side and, since we had brought out passports with us, we headed over. And, sure enough, the views are awesome. Here are the American Falls with the boulders at the bottom. Annie told us that she didn’t barrel over these falls because of the rocks.

Here are the Canadian Falls, the Horseshoe Falls with the huge plume of mist.

Not only did the Canadians get the best views of the Falls, the best places to build hotels and thus the most tourist draws but then they had the chutzpah to charge me 50 cents to get back to my own country.

Here are the people in blue ponchos in the Maid of the Mist on the American side.

And, the people in red ponchos in the Hornblower on the Canadian side.

And the people in yellow ponchos at the Cave of the Winds.

Do all three of these things and you, too, can have 3 new ponchos - you’ll be all set for the rain.
Look at that beautiful water color as it plunges over the Horseshoe Falls.

And, one more picture of the Horseshoe Falls with its mist plume. Note the dark clouds in the sky. Looks like we’ll need all 3 of those ponchos.

To cap the day off, we saw Elvis on the way back to the American side.

And, here we are paying our $.50 to get back to the American side.

And, then we walked along the rapids on the Niagara River before they plunged over the American Falls.

Churning and roiling.

‘A good traveler has no fixed plans and is not intent on arriving.’
                                
                                        Lao Tzu