A Daredevil History of Niagara Falls

On the border of Canada and upstate New York, Niagara Falls has wowed visitors for centuries. Even more stunning than the massive waterfall itself have been the many courageous people who have used it as a backdrop for daring stunts. Tightrope walkers, barrel riders and kayakers have sought fame and fortune with their outrageous antics. Here is a brief history of Niagara Falls and the stunts that have occurred there.

Franciscan monk and explorer Louis Hennepin becomes the first European explorer to encounter Niagara Falls. Impressed, Hennepin estimates the falls to be an incredible 600 feet high—though, in reality, they rise 170 feet.

Jean François Gravelet-Blondin, known as the “Great Blondin,” begins a famous series of tightrope walks across the Niagara gorge. The act draws crowds as large as 25,000 people. Blondin crosses in increasingly difficult ways, riding a bicycle, pushing a wheelbarrow and even with his hands and legs bound in chains. His most difficult crossing takes place on August 19, when he manages to carry his manager over the rope on his back.

Maria Spelterina, a 23-year-old Italian woman, becomes the only woman to cross the gorge by tightrope. Seeking to add some drama to the events, she crosses Niagara wearing woven baskets instead of shoes and with her head covered by a paper bag.

The Niagara Reservation State Park opens, attracting 750,000 visitors. It is the first state park established in the United States.

Twenty years after the last crossing, Niagara Falls claims its first—and only—tightrope victim when the body of Stephen Peer, a local Ontario native, is discovered. Just days before, Peer had made several successful trips, and authorities determine that he died after a botched attempt at a nighttime crossing.

Three years after Peer’s death, Samuel Dixon uses the same cable as Peer to make several successful crossings while performing a variety of stunts.

Toronto’s Clifford Calverly sets the record for the fastest crossing across the gorge. He makes his way across a 3/4-inch steel cable in just 6 minutes, 33.5 seconds.

The last tightrope crossing for more than 115 years is completed by 21-year-old James Hardy.

Not only the first woman but the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, Annie Edison Taylor is a poor widow when she arrives in Niagara Falls in 1901. The 63-year-old (who claims to be 42) sees the stunt as a way to make money. After hiring a manager, she braves the falls in a barrel she designs herself. She survives, but “the heroine of Horseshoe Falls” doesn’t end up with the financial windfall she expects. She works as a Niagara street vendor for 20 years and dies penniless.

Charles Stephens, the second man to go over the falls, takes the plunge in a 600-pound oak barrel. The force of the water rips the barrel apart, and Stephens is killed. His right arm is the only part of him to be recovered.

Jean Lussier goes over the falls inside a 6-foot rubber ball lined with oxygen-filled rubber tubes. He survives and afterward earns extra money by selling pieces of the ball’s rubber tubes.

Adventurer George Stathakis goes over the falls in a 10-foot, 1-ton wooden barrel. Sadly, however, Stathakis’ barrel is caught behind the falls for 14 hours. With only enough air to live for three hours, Stathakis dies before he is rescued, but his 105-year-old pet turtle, Sonny Boy, survives the trip.

Red Hill Jr. braves Horseshoe Falls on what he calls “the thing,” a flimsily constructed raft made of 13 inner tubes tied together with rope and enclosed in a fish net. Soon after his plunge, the raft’s inner tubes begin popping to the surface of the river, but there is no sign of Hill. His bruised body is not recovered until the next day.

Canadians Peter DeBernardi and Geoffrey Petkovich become the first team to go over the falls together, enclosed face-to-face in a single barrel. They survive with minor injuries.

Jessie Sharp, who hopes to advance his career as a stuntman by going over Niagara Falls, attempts the feat in a whitewater kayak without a helmet or a life vest. His body is never recovered.

Robert Overacker tries to go over the falls on a jet ski. The 15th person since 1901 to attempt the feat, he does not survive.

Steven Trotter and Lori Martin become the first man and woman to make it over the falls together in one barrel. Since then, the regulatory body that governs the falls, the Niagara Parks Commission (NPC), has refused to issue permits for stunts. The first exception has been granted to daredevil Nik Wallenda. In the future, the NPC plans to issue permits just “once in a generation,” or roughly every 20 years.