Editing Niagara Falls (section)

==History==
[[File:Chutes du Niagara par Hennepin.tiff|thumb|[[Louis Hennepin]] is depicted in front of the falls in this 1698 print.<ref>''Saut ou chute d'eau de Niagara, qui se voit entre le Lac Ontario, & le Lac Erié''.</ref>]]

Many figures have been suggested as first circulating a European eyewitness description of Niagara Falls. The Frenchman [[Samuel de Champlain]] visited the area as early as 1604 during his exploration of what is now Canada, and members of his party reported to him the spectacular waterfalls, which he described in his journals. The first description of the falls is credited to Belgian missionary, Father [[Louis Hennepin]] in 1677, after traveling with the explorer [[René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle]], thus bringing the falls to the attention of Europeans. French Jesuit missionary [[Paul Ragueneau]] likely visited the falls some 35 years before Hennepin's visit while working among the [[Wyandot people|Huron First Nation]] in Canada. [[Jean de Brébeuf]] also may have visited the falls, while spending time with the [[Neutral Nation]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_33.html |title=The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents Volume 33 |publisher=Puffin.creighton.edu |access-date=October 16, 2010 |archive-date=March 21, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160321002602/http://www.puffin.creighton.edu/jesuit/relations/relations_33.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> The Finland-Swedish naturalist [[Pehr Kalm]] explored the area in the early 18th century and is credited with the first scientific description of the falls. In 1762, Captain [[Thomas Davies (British Army officer)|Thomas Davies]], a British Army officer and artist, surveyed the area and painted the watercolor, ''[[An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara]]'', the first eyewitness painting of the falls.<ref name="christie1">{{cite web| title=Captain Thomas Davies (1737–1812): An East View of the Great Cataract of Niagara| url=http://www.christies.com/lotfinder/drawings-watercolors/captain-thomas-davies-an-east-view-5873997-details.aspx| publisher=[[Christie's]]| date=April 1, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite book| last=Dickenson| first=Victoria| title=Drawn from Life: Science and Art in the Portrayal of the New World| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MHET0UM9Q40C&pg=PA195| page=195| year=1998| publisher=University of Toronto Press| isbn=978-0-8020-8073-8}}</ref>

[[File:Horseshoe Falls from above, Niagara, ON, 1869.jpg|thumb|left|Horseshoe Falls, 1869]]

During the 19th century, tourism became popular, and by the mid-century, it was the area's main industry. [[Theodosia Burr Alston]] (daughter of Vice President [[Aaron Burr]]) and her husband [[Joseph Alston]] were the first recorded couple to honeymoon there in 1801.<ref>Sherman Zavitz (City of Niagara Falls Official Historian), "Niagara Falls Moment", CJRN 710 Radio, June 26, 2008,</ref> [[Napoleon Bonaparte]]'s brother [[Jérôme Bonaparte|Jérôme]] visited with his bride in the early 19th century.<ref name="Canadadacool">{{cite web | url = http://www.canadacool.com/COOLFACTS/ONTARIO/NiagaraFallsNapoleon.html | title = Niagara Falls is such a cool honeymoon destination even Napoleon's Brother chose it | access-date = September 24, 2006 | archive-date = November 27, 2020 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20201127015425/http://www.canadacool.com/location/niagara-falls-napoleons-brother/ | url-status = dead }}</ref> In 1825, British explorer [[John Franklin]] visited the falls while passing through [[New York (state)|New York]] en route to [[Cumberland House, Saskatchewan|Cumberland House]] as part of his second Arctic expedition, calling them "so justly celebrated as the first in the world for grandeur".<ref>{{cite book |last=Franklin|first=John|date=1828|title=Narrative of a Second Expedition to the Shores of the Polar Sea|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/files/33467/33467-h/33467-h.htm|publisher=Carey, Lea, and Carey|page=XV}}</ref>

In 1843, [[Frederick Douglass]] joined the [[American Anti-Slavery Society]]'s "One Hundred Conventions" tour throughout New York and the midwest. Sometime on this tour, Douglass visited Niagara Falls and wrote a brief account of the experience: "When I came into its awful presence the power of discription failed me, an irrisistible power closed my lips."
<ref>{{cite book| last = Douglass| first = Frederick| author-link = Frederick Douglass| date = 1843| chapter = Niagara| title = The Frederick Douglass Papers| url = https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.12987/9780300266283-009/html?lang=en| location = New Haven, CT| publisher = Yale University Press| pages = 2–3| doi = 10.12987/9780300266283-009| isbn = 978-0-300-26628-3}}</ref> Being on the Canadian border, Niagara Falls was on one of the routes of the [[Underground Railroad]]. The falls were also a popular tourist attraction for Southern slaveowners, who would bring their enslaved workers on the trip. "Many a time the trusted body-servant, or slave-girl, would leave master or mistress in the discharge of some errand, and never come back."<ref>
{{cite book| last = Severance| first = Frank H.| author-link = Frank Severance| date = 1899|chapter= Underground Trails| title = Old Trails on the Niagara Frontier| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=PdZCAAAAIAAJ&pg=RA1-PA244| location = Buffalo, NY| page = 244}}</ref> This sometimes led to conflict. Early town father Peter Porter assisted slavecatchers in finding runaway slaves, even leading, in the case of runaway Solomon Moseby, to a riot in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Canada.<ref>Strand, pp. 116-119</ref> Much of this history is memorialized in the [[Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center]]. After the [[American Civil War]], the [[New York Central Railroad]] publicized Niagara Falls as a focus of pleasure and honeymoon visits. After World War II, the auto industry, along with local tourism boards, began to promote Niagara honeymoons.<ref>Strand, p. 214</ref>

In about 1840, the English industrial chemist [[Hugh Lee Pattinson]] traveled to Canada, stopping at Niagara Falls long enough to make the earliest known photograph of the falls, a [[daguerreotype]] in the collection of [[Newcastle University]]. It was once believed that the small figure standing silhouetted with a top hat was added by an engraver working from imagination as well as the daguerreotype as his source, but the figure is clearly present in the photograph.<ref name=" NiagaraParks" /> Because of the very long exposure required, of ten minutes or more, the figure is assumed by Canada's Niagara Parks agency to be Pattinson.<ref name="NiagaraParks">{{cite web | url=http://www.niagaraparks.com/media/press-releases/daguerreotype-background.html | title=Backgrounder: Pattinson Daguerreotype | publisher=Niagara Parks, an agency of the Government of Ontario since 1885 |access-date=November 30, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101228214832/http://www.niagaraparks.com/media/press-releases/daguerreotype-background.html |archive-date=December 28, 2010 }} The assumption explained on the web page is that as Pattinson had ample time to walk into the picture, he opened the shutter and then positioned himself at the chosen spot, keeping still there for some minutes.</ref> The image is left-right inverted and taken from the [[Canada|Canadian side]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.07-recovered-niagara-falls-1840-photograph/ |title=Photo: Niagara Falls, 1840 |publisher=[[The Walrus (magazine)|The Walrus]] |work=How academics found the first photograph to be taken in Canada |date=July–August 2009 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120129064747/http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2009.07-recovered-niagara-falls-1840-photograph/ |archive-date=January 29, 2012 }}</ref> Pattinson made other photographs of Horseshoe Falls; these were then transferred to engravings to illustrate [[Noël Paymal Lerebours|Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours]]' ''Excursions Daguerriennes'' (Paris, 1841–1864).<ref name="Newcastle">{{cite web |url=http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/specialcollections/collections/daguerreotypes/pattinson.php |title=Hugh Lee Pattinson |publisher=Newcastle University |year=2010 |access-date=November 29, 2012 |archive-date=November 7, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171107112506/http://www.ncl.ac.uk/library/special-collections//collections/daguerreotypes/pattinson.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
[[File:Niagara Falls 1911.jpg|thumb|American Falls frozen over with people on the ice, 1911]]
[[File:Niagara Falls Canada NARA-68145149.jpg|thumb|Aerial photograph of Niagara Falls, 1931]]
On August 6, 1918, an [[Niagara Scow|iron scow became stuck on the rocks]] above the falls.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.koamnewsnow.com/news/shareable-stories/boat-trapped-on-rocks-above-niagara-falls-dislodged-after-101-years/1138391421|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191104145527/https://www.koamnewsnow.com/news/shareable-stories/boat-trapped-on-rocks-above-niagara-falls-dislodged-after-101-years/1138391421|url-status=dead|archive-date=November 4, 2019|title=Boat trapped on rocks above Niagara Falls dislodged after 101 years|date=November 2, 2019|publisher=KOAM|access-date=November 4, 2019}}</ref> The two men on the scow were rescued, but the vessel remained trapped on rocks in the river, and is still visible there in a deteriorated state, although its position shifted by {{convert|50|meters}} during a storm on October 31, 2019.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/11/02/iron-scow-niagara-falls-dislodged-severe-weather-after-101-years/4144104002/|title=Boat trapped for 101 years near edge of Niagara Falls moves after Halloween night storm|date=November 2, 2019|work=USA Today|access-date=November 3, 2019}}</ref> Daredevil [[William "Red" Hill Sr.]] was particularly praised for his role in the rescue.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://niagarafalls.ca/news/194-niagara-parks-hosts-centenary-of-the-iron-scow-rescue.news|title=Niagara Parks Hosts Centenary of the Iron Scow Rescue|date=July 19, 2018|publisher=City of Niagara Falls|access-date=November 3, 2019}}</ref>

After the [[World War I|First World War]], tourism boomed 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. Before the late 20th century, the northeastern end of Horseshoe Falls was in the United States, flowing around the Terrapin Rocks, which were 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]].<ref name="berton"/> In the early 1980s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers filled in more land and built [[diversion dam]]s and [[retaining wall]]s to force the water away from Terrapin Point. Altogether, {{convert|400|ft|m|abbr=on|order=flip}} of Horseshoe Falls were eliminated, including {{convert|100|ft|m|abbr=on|order=flip}} on the Canadian side. According to author Ginger Strand, the Horseshoe Falls is now entirely in Canada.<ref name="strand">{{cite book |last= Strand |first=Ginger |title=Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and Lies |year= 2009 |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-4165-4657-3 |page= 195 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=obXliU3-7WcC&pg=PA195| access-date= December 1, 2010}}</ref> Other sources say "most of" Horseshoe Falls is in Canada.<ref name="vanderwilt">Vanderwilt, Dirk (2007). ''Niagara Falls: With the Niagara Parks, Clifton Hill, and Other Area Attractions'', p. 35. Channel Lake, Inc., {{ISBN|978-0-9792043-7-1}}</ref>

The only recorded freeze-up of the river and falls was caused by an ice jam on March 29, 1848. No water (or at best a trickle) fell for as much as 40 hours. Waterwheels stopped, and mills and factories shut down for having no power.<ref>{{cite news|last=Alfred|first=Randy|date=March 30, 2010|title=March 30, 1848: Niagara Falls Runs Dry|work=Wired.com|url=https://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2010/03/0330niagara-falls-stops|access-date=October 16, 2010|id=This Day in Tech}}</ref> In 1912, American Falls was completely frozen, but the other two falls kept flowing. Although the falls commonly ice up most winters, the river and the falls do not freeze completely. The years 1885, 1902, 1906, 1911, 1932, 1936, 2014, 2017 and 2019 are noted for partial freezing of the falls.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.niagarafallsmarriott.com/niagara-seasons/does-niagara-falls-freeze-in-the-winter/|title=Does Niagara Falls Freeze in the Winter?|date=December 15, 2016|website=Marriott Niagara Falls Hotel}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/niagara-falls-frozen/|title=FACT CHECK: Do Photographs Capture Niagara Falls Frozen?|website=Snopes.com|date=January 23, 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/does-niagara-falls-freeze-has-niagara-falls-frozen.html |title=Does Niagara Falls Freeze? Has Niagara Falls Frozen? |date=July 15, 2019 |publisher=World Atlas |access-date=November 4, 2019 }}</ref> A so-called ice bridge was common in certain years at the base of the falls and was used by people who wanted to cross the river before bridges had been built. During some winters, the ice sheet was as thick as {{convert|40|to|100|ft|m|order=flip}}, but that thickness has not occurred since 1954. The ice bridge of 1841 was said to be at least {{convert|100|ft|m|order=flip}} thick.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.niagarafallsinfo.com/niagara-falls-history/niagara-falls-geology/ice-bridges-of-niagara/historic-niagara-ice-bridges/ |title=Ice Bridges of Niagara Falls |date=July 11, 2007 |publisher=Info Niagara |access-date=November 4, 2019 }}</ref> On February 4, 1912, the ice bridge which had formed on January 15 began breaking up while people were still on it. Many escaped, but three died during the event, later named the Ice Bridge Tragedy.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.niagarafallstourism.com/blog/ice-bridge-tragedy/ |title=ICE BRIDGE TRAGEDY |date=February 22, 2018 |publisher=Niagara Falls Tourism |access-date=November 4, 2019 |archive-date=November 12, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112024851/https://www.niagarafallstourism.com/blog/ice-bridge-tragedy/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>