Present Day Niagara Falls Attractions .

Heritage Fair Essay . ; Niagara Falls .

Niagara Falls ; Thunder Waters.

    

By ; Steffany Mejia .

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Canadian heritage is different than any other places heritage, it tells us about our past, and what brought us here. People in other countries can come here and see our culture and they would know nothing about it, but it’s everything to us. It helps us remember who we are, and that we are unique because there is no other country in the world that has the exact same history we have. Heritage is about the past history, traditions, cultures, and memories. In Canada there is so much history that it takes us back millions of years ago, from when it was created to today, from when people discovered it to when it became known to everyone. There are so many things that other countries would only dream of having, places that are only on Canada and nowhere else. One specific place that is known by many people would be Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls is much more than just a famous tourist site, it has history that has made nature and geology the way it is now.

Niagara Falls was made over a thousand years ago, it took years and years to form the Falls the way they are now. In the beginning, about a million years ago everything was ice. The Falls began forming with sediments being compressed. Dolostones, lime stones, sandstones, all were compressed and that’s how and when Niagara Falls began forming. Rivers, streams, and ponds were made from the rainwater, but one year it got to the point where the snow never melted for a year and was there when next year’s winter came. That’s when the sun finally came and the frozen lakes turned into massive melted water. Then Lake Erie along with Lake Iroquois both became separate bodies of water. Tonawanda ended up being in between the two lakes, the outflow coming from Tonawanda spilling into Lake Iroquois from five different entries. Nothing stopped Tonawanda’s water’s; it covered everything and all the spillways disappeared except the one at Queenston Site. Although this is how the falls began, this is how it was formed seven miles from where it is now. The lake Tonawanda began to shrink, and continued, and became the Niagara River as it’s known today. A cataract dug up a pool that was at its base to create the Cataract basin, and that began undercutting the layer at top of the Escarpment to make the Niagara Gorges. Today Niagara Falls continues to change and grow, as it is now it’s the second largest cataract in the world.

Today Niagara Falls is built from several different gorges; the unique thing about this cataract is the location and geography. Niagara Falls is split down the middle of New York, United States and Ontario, Canada. This cataract is shared in between two different countries at their border. Niagara Falls is made up out of three different waterfalls. They are known as the American Falls, the Canadian Horseshoe Falls, and the Bridal Veil Falls. The height of The American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls is 176 feet due to the rocks, without measuring the rocks the height would be about 70 feet. On the other hand the Canadian Horseshoe falls is 167 feet tall, and the brink is 2600 feet. The American falls are on the American side of course, together with the Bridal Veil Falls right next to it, when the Canadian Horseshoe falls is in the middle of the border, though they are mostly on the Canadian side, only one-third of the Horseshoe falls are on the American side. The entire Niagara Falls cataract runs on the Niagara River, 90 Percent of the water on the Niagara River runs over the Canadian Falls, the other 10 percent goes to the American Falls. Even though the Horseshoe Falls belongs to both countries, the American falls 100 percent is in America. The Niagara Falls is one of a kind.

As long ago as Niagara Falls was built, of course it wasn’t immediately discovered the minute it started forming. The Indian's were the first to know, from exploring the land themselves. Jacques Carter was the first to write about the Niagara Falls from hearing about it from the Indian’s, he had never seen them though, so he wasn't the first eye witness to write about the Falls. He was the first to mention the Falls in 1535 by writing about them, although Samuel De Champlain was the person to see the Falls the earliest in 1604, but he never said anything of it. Etienne Brule was the first European to see Niagara Falls in 1615. The person to actually see, study, and write about the Falls was Louis Hennepin in 1677-1678, bringing the attention of other Europeans with doing so. Hennepin arrived at the mount of the Falls on December 6, wrote a book describing Niagara Falls, which was published in 1683. As this made him the first European to see, describe, and even have pictures of Niagara Falls. This makes him the person that discovered Niagara Falls and let the word out. Pent Kalm also explored the area during early 18Th century, but of course it had already been discovered. Nobody will ever know who was the very first person to ever see the Falls, who will be the last person to see the falls. Everyone does know that Niagara Falls will be unforgettable by both.

Some years after the Falls became discovered by everyone, people started doing stunts, and trying to go over the Falls just to have their names in history, and of course some succeeded in their goal. Charles Blondin was one of many brave enough to try to walk over the Falls. In 1859 he became the first of many to tightrope across the Falls, which he first attempted on June 30, 1859 with a crowd of about 100,000 people and he succeeded after 15 minutes of waking across, and then walked back taking only 7 minutes. Once he even walked across while carrying his work manager on his back on August 17, 1859. Annie Edson Taylor was the very first person to cross the Niagara Falls from the U.S side to the Canadian in a barrel. Annie was a 63 year old school teacher, although claiming to be 43 at the time, and on October 24, 1901 she strapped herself onto a carrel and launched herself into the water, and that day, became the first person to cross in a barrel and live. Then Roger Woodward became the first person to actually fall down the Falls and survive with only a life-jacket on as a floating device on July 9, 1960. While him, his sister along with a family friend were on a boat along the Niagara River they didn't realize they were Nearing the Falls and by the time they did it was too late. His sister managed to not go down, but Roger did and was found by a Maid of the Mist Boat, thankfully alive, and became famous for that event that changed his life. In October 2003 history welcomed Kirk Raymond Jones as the first person in history to swim across the Falls without any flotation or safety device. The 40 year old jumped into the Horseshoe Falls without anything to protect him; he was 20 feet away from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls and swept off in to the water 170 feet above. Even though he lives, the consequence was that he got charged $3,000 for crossing over to Canada and is now banned. There are also many more people that did stunts but these are the most common names in history.

You might think the Falls are too strong and powerful to be unstoppable, but strangely enough, they have stopped flowing entirely. It was in 1848 that the falls completely stopped flowing water, everything had been fine, the Falls had been flowing all day the day before. By the next morning, nothing was there, not a drop of water running and nobody knew how or why. Everyone assumed the strong winds must have broken down the large rocks at Lake Erie stopping the water, because all they heard was a low rumble and then watched as the water came rushing down. Although later found out they found out there had been an ice jam in an upper river. Nobody will forget about that experience, because it got to the point where you could have gone out and gathered artifacts on the riverbank, and some people actually did, there were even artifacts from the battle in 1812. The falls did eventually stop flowing again in 1969, but only the American Falls. The only point in this was to determine the feasibility of the Falls, by removing the rocks that were at the base of the Falls. In the end they decided the consequences and damages would be too major. People have also wondered if the Falls freeze during the winter, and they do, but at the same time they don’t. Its complicated, but the situation is that they never completely freeze, they may look frozen from on top, but the water is still flowing underneath. So the volume of the water has never stopped flowing, there can even be ice up to 50 feet thick on the river, and if the weather’s cold enough an ice bridge can be formed. It would be amazing to be able to walk onto the ice and experience it, before 1912 you were allowed to, until February 4, 1912 when the ice broke and 3 tourists died. So, physically the Falls have never completely frozen over in the winter, they have completely stopped flowing, and there may be a possibility that it could happen again, who knows ?

     Niagara Falls made Canada different because it changed the geology and the history in the world by being the second largest cataract in the entire world. Without Niagara Falls Canada surely wouldn’t be the same way because it would be missing one of it’s most important attractions. Niagara Falls has made a huge input in geography and history, I can’t imagine that huge space in Ontario and New York without the great waterfall that belongs there, it would seem strange. Everything all started building with just plain rocks, and it came to be a famous waterfall. It became a place that people wanted to cross over and become famous, now it’s also a place where people die. Even when it wasn’t flowing it was still something everyone wanted to see, it’s always been famous. Niagara Falls will always be in Canadian history and heritage, it will always be known for being like nothing else anyone has seen.