After leaving Montreal, we stayed in Canada until we reached the headwaters of the St. Lawrence River at Lake Ontario. Once again, the open roads and scenic countryside made “getting there” half of the fun. What my wife didn’t expect was that BRIDGE! You see, she’s always had a phobia about bridges (we’ll talk about this again with our visit to Mackinac Island) and one of the biggest we came across was crossing into New York. That was a steep angle on a BIG bridge. And it was under construction!
(Canadian Mood Lighting)
(Up, up, we go! One lane due to construction.)
Natural Wonders
The biggest surprise was how fast and shallow the river was above the falls. I’ve canoed and kayaked a lot of rivers, and the water held a lot of anger as it passed by the shore. No wading. No paddling. Current and boulders. Modern amenities allow you to not only walk along the bank of the river but then to also cross over on a small bridge to the island that divides the river. Your first impression of the American side of the falls might be…meh. Once you go out onto Goat Island and peer over Horseshoe Falls (the Canadian side), you’ll recognize all the iconic images.
The other impressive natural feature is the canyon carved by the river. Each year, the river chews away at that rock, backing the river closer and closer to Lake Erie. While walking around the top of the falls is impressive, taking a boat tour of the fifteen mile channel to Lake Ontario is pretty impressive also.
One of the quieter features of this tour is Whirlpool State Park, which is on a peninsula overlooking the river below, where you can see a smaller waterfall and a HUGE eddy formed before the fast moving water turns dramatically in another direction.
Manmade Wonders
We stayed on the American side of the falls, and it didn’t take us long to realize the party was happening on the Canadian side. For us, we were only staying for a day, but if you wanted to stay longer, the other side seemed to have a lot more fun.
Seeing the power of the angry water, it’s hard to imagine—but did you know they shut off the water? Yep, for the first time in 12,000 years (give or take a few), they shut off the falls in 1969. The US Army Corps of Engineers dumped A LOT of rock to redirect the falls for…governmental scientific purposes (just smile and nod).
On the Canadian side, there is a HUGE powerplant that allows water from above the falls to flow around for a dozen miles before dropping back into the gorge through gates that look like they belong in Lord of the Rings.
Tesla
There was a rock band from the eighties called Tesla. Now these guys weren’t glam (no spandex) or a Hair Band (no hairspray), but they wore blue jeans, boots, and t-shirts on stage to stand out from the crowd. Besides that, they named themselves after…a scientist.
Back in the day, Nikola Tesla was one of the world’s greatest genesis, although he was half scientist and half sorcerer, conjuring up things we’ve yet to figure out from his notes. Thomas Edison and his goons crushed this guy’s career and ripped off his profitable ideas. Today, Tesla has been ripped off again for the brand of a car. Yet Tesla gained enough respect in the scientific community that a statue was built to his pioneering ideas about energy.
Stopping Place #2
For the Anishinaabe People, this leg of the migration was likely the most difficult. Although this time period has little recorded history for them, New York is home to the Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) People. Although the Anishinabe People are one of the largest Indigenous groups in North America, the lore doesn’t say how long it took to get from Nova Scotia to Niagara Falls. It could have been a few years, a few generations, or a few centuries, so the size and impact of the migration is hard to discern. Did they wage open war? Were they diplomatic? It’s hard to know.
While Wayaanag-gakaabikaa, or Concave Waterfalls, is an awe-inspiring sight, what does it offer for food? Resources? Transportation? You can’t even use it to go from lake to lake without hitting a massive pothole! The forests on either side of the water were worth more in value, so I think the Anishinaabe might’ve seen Grand Island as a defensive bonus. Navy Island is smaller yet closer to the falls. Goat Island is right above the falls. While there were plenty of references to Iroquois culture (Niagara means Thunder of Water), the Anishinaabe didn’t stay long in this location.
Camped between two Great Lakes, it didn’t take the Anishinaabe scouts long to travel upriver in search of another island and more megis shells.
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