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Published: December 11th 2006
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Niagara Falls
The Canadain Horseshoe falls. 170ft from crestline to the Maid of the Mist Pool. Standing there amidst a throng of snap happy tourists from around globe, jostling for a clear, unfettered view among the crowds I thought how spectacular it would have been to experience Niagara Falls back when it was largely undiscovered save for the native people. To stumble across this awe inspiring natural feature on your hunt for carabou or as a unexpected cherry on the top of early explorations.
I pondered what it would be like to experience Niagara in the absence of like minded traveling hordes. Experience it without Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, House of Horrors, Guinness Book of Records Museum, Ripley's Believe It or Not, Marineland, Imax, Niagara Casino, restaurant chains and much, much more. I concluded that it would have been decidely more agreeable. Sadly, In our ever increasingly ADHD and profit driven culture one of the seven natural wonders of the world is obviously not attraction enough and to see Niagara Falls in only it's own simple splendor one would need the assistance of a time machine to take you back to the 1800's.
Back then Niagara was the territory of the Iroquois and while it is documented that the native people told explorers
Bridge over Niagara Gorge
Connects Canada and the States. of this amazing place as early as 1535 it is thought that the first european to behold the falls may have been Entienne Brule in 1615. Until the American War the native population was able to keep white settlers out of the Niagara area almost completely.
Following the War of 1812 the region began the work of rebuilding and in the 1820's stairs were built down the banks to facilitate a ferry service. In 1827 roads were paved, in 1849 bridges were well under way to span the gap across the gorge and in 1902 a railway was constructed. Unsurprisingly, with the increased accessibility, tourism in the area started in the 1820's, increasing ten fold over the next 50 years or so. As a response to the growing tourism and with the increased popularity of automobile travel after World War I accommodations and attractions sprung up in strip developments. Many of these remain today with quite a few others for company and competition.
These days there are approximately 79,000 permanent residents in the area. Around 18 million visitors are attracted to the falls each year with somewhere in the vicinity of 27,000 people staying each night
during the summer months. Tourism in Niagara is, needless to say, a billion dollar industry and just over 80% of the businesses here are multinationals or have some sort of chain affiliation. For those of you familiar with Australia's Gold Coast, Niagara is similar to Surfer's Paradise. If it had a replica of the Eiffel Tower and the Sphinx along with a few more casino's Niagara could resemble a mini Las Vegas.
Niagara Falls now boasts, in addition to being one of The Seven Wonders of the World, the titled of Honeymoon Capital of the World. Yes, that'a right folks! Every honeymooning couple receives an official Honeymoon Certificate, signed by the mayor himself - 'to treasure for many years to come' according to the official Niagara council website - as well as vouchers for free entry to many attractions. Well, if that isn't reason enough to honeymoon here, I don't know what is! You get a keep sake AND save a few bucks. You can do Niagara on a budget, but in general it costs quite a pretty penny to stay a while here, although - so far - viewing the falls from the land is still free.
Niagara Falls
With Maid of the Mist boat in the pool. As for the falls themselves, I jest when I said I thought they'd be bigger. They are extremely impressive and, all cynical expressions for the commercialism of it aside, it was well worth the drive to experience it. What I found though is that as awesome as the falls are, they were exactly what I'd expected. Maybe, if I'm honest, not quite as large as I expected. Okay. There. I said it.
Being such a well known place and having seen countless pieces of footage of it from documentaries and movies as well as innumerable photographs (like the ones I'm posting) nothing had been left to the imagination. I liken it to going to see that movie that has received rave reviews everywhere, discussions of it filling every corner of the media, trailers showing on every channel. So often it isn't as amazing as you'd thought it might be. Had it not been built up so much, had your expectations not been so elevated by the hype you yourself would have been raving about it uncontrollably afterwards (probably spoiling it for someone else). Instead you emerge from the cinema and say "Well, it was good. But
I guess I was kind of expecting, I don't know.... more...". Expectations are such awful things but sometimes they seem unavoidable.
Still, gazing at the Horseshoe Falls, I thought of those brave, stupid fools who went over it in barrels. They must have been clinically insane or else partial to suicidal tendencies. The Horseshoe Falls, on the Canadian side, is 2600ft wide and plunges 170ft (52mts)into the Maid of the Mist Pool. The birth of the falls is estimated to be 12,000 years ago and these days 168,000 cubic metres of water goes over the crestline every minute, making it not only a natural wonder and tourist attraction but also a powerful engine for the generation of hydroelectricity.
In comparison, the American Falls (on the American side, of course) has a more modest drop of 21-34 metres from crest to base rocks and is considerably narrower. I must admit this realisation caused a wry (some may say ill-natured) smile to escape from me. America, having the reputation for loving all things supersized and Americans being so fiercely nationalistic, often and loudly declaring themselves to be the biggest and best country with the biggest and best stuff,
Head Shot
Niagara Falls. they must really find this short straw sticking in their craw. They must rue the loss of the battle with Canada and the drawing up of the boundaries in this neck of the woods.
Our visit to Niagara Falls was limited to a few hours but I found that, for me, that was adequate. Bill and Jean had collected us from the Toronto Airport where we had landed after a 3 hour drive from Charlottetown to Halifax and a 5 hour flight from there to Ontario. We drove a good couple of hours to Niagara on the Lake, a quaint little town not far from the falls with lots of neat little gift shops and boutiques. It was a cute little place and Jean and I enjoyed trying on hats in the hat shop, scarves in the scarf shop, reading cards in the card shop and so on, while Jim and Bill seemed somewhat interested though vaguely agitated. We then stopped at the War Memorial and wandered the grounds which was nice, offering a glimpse into history despite the drizzling rain.
We pushed on to the falls and the folks dropped us off near the viewing
Horse and Carriage
Niagara-on-the-Lake. area, to go in search of cheap parking. They found some though it was a bit of a hike from the 'action'. We enjoyed the views, took the photo's, declined the t-shirt and went to wander the town, stopping for a good meal before venturing into Niagara's Casino. In doing so we joined the ranks of more than 10 million who visit the casino here annually. We neglected to gamble and instead admired the lavish decore and trim, watched the gamblers win and lose and got lost - as is inevitable in such places - looking for the exit. We drove by the falls after dark, with it's pretty coloured lights illuminating the spray on our way back home to St Thomas. For this part of the journey we spent the first half playing games and the second napping. I was tired and my back was protesting at the amount of sitting and traveling being done in a day. I really appreciated Bill and Jean taking us to the falls and though I might have sounded cynical in this blog, I enjoyed it and think that if you are in Ontario you are fairly obliged to visit Niagara as well.
That's it for now, next time I write it will be from British Columbia to report on the weather of Vancouver and other relevant material. Til next time, be good.
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maria
non-member comment
Not just a good read but educational too - continuing to raise the bar