Niagara’s Voyagers

Ever since the early part of the nineteenth century Niagara has been the scene of perilous feats. Perhaps the earliest of these performances was the leap of Sam Patch in 1829. From that time on, at various intervals, men and women have journeyed to Niagara to win fame and fortune by doing some deed they hoped would make them an unusual attraction in the several fields they elected to enter to gain a living.

The most popular feat at Niagara for many years was to voyage through the Whirlpool Rapids in a boat or barrel or protected only by a life preserver. Possibly the feat of Joel Robinson of June 6, 1861, set the pace in this field of adventure. It was Robinson who piloted the steamer Maid of the Mist through the marvelous Niagara canyon and its rough waters to the more placid portion of the stream at Queenston.

The intrepid Capt. Matthew Webb, a man who had successfully swam across the English Channel, had the daring to try and pass through the wild, tumultuous, tossing waters of the Whirlpool Rapids unprotected, but instead of being a trip to fame, his was a trip to eternity. After Webb came many others, and it was then that the barrel voyager of the Niagara came into prominence. Protected by barrels several have made trips through the Whirlpool Rapids and Whirlpool, in fact this voyage long ago became lacking in interest.

These circumstances and conditions led several to look about Niagara in hopes of discovering some other route to golden fame. Of course, there was the Falls, that stupendous downpour of water that drops the overflow of Lake Erie to the stream that runs so swiftly on to “Old Ontario.” The Falls of Niagara were there, and had been there for centuries, but even the ambitious men and women who desired to link their names forever with Niagara and its wonders, looked upon it as too great a proposition for them to trifle with; they wanted fame, they wanted dollars, but none of them sought death. And it was written all about Niagara, on the tongues and faces of the oldest and youngest residents, that whoever dare try and conquer this noble and sublime Cataract would surely go down to the grave—a grave marked by a monument bearing a statement of the occupant’s foolishness in presuming to pass over the precipice of Niagara and live.

When Annie Edson Taylor journeyed to Niagara and announced an intention of going over the Falls, the announcement commanded but little attention. Everybody looked upon it as a ridiculous ambition—a foolish idea—and the knowing ones guessed that when she had studied the chaotic nature of the waters in the three-quarter mile stretch of rapids above the Horseshoe, she would quickly conclude that her home was a more peaceful place in which to end her days. Nobody believed that a woman would require but a glance at the awful plunge over the Falls to convince her that death lurked in those waters, eager to continue the unbroken record of fatalities on the list of those who had involuntarily been caught in the suction of the upper rapids and swept over the frightful brink into the chasm below.

But Annie Edson Taylor lingered at Niagara. The date of her announced trip arrived. The wind was too high to allow the boatmen to reach the current necessary to escape the rocky reefs and to be swept over the Horseshoe, and the world was amazed by the statement sent out from Niagara that night that Annie Edson Taylor was still determined to conquer the Horseshoe Fall of Niagara or die. It was then that the people of the locality got serious on the matter. Previous to this time there had been a vast amount of joking, all at Mrs. Taylor’s expense, but this woman’s will was terribly set, and even the Coroner of Niagara concluded that it was time for him to interfere in his official capacity.

On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor and her barrel were again taken out on the Upper Niagara, and the story that follows tells that she is the only person who has ever voluntarily made the frightful trip through the Upper Rapids of the Niagara, plunged over the Horseshoe Fall and floated on the foam-lashed, whirling waters of the Lower Niagara. When it was announced that Mrs. Taylor had successfully made the awful trip, the terrible drop into the gorge, the world was amazed, but none more so than the people who had passed their lives close by the Mighty Cataract, and who had come to believe that no human being could pass over it and live.

In the lines that follow Mrs. Taylor has herself told in a plain manner the story of her life and her victory at Niagara. Her deed singles her out from all the world, in that she has done what no other man or woman ever before attempted. How she became impressed with the belief that she could conquer Niagara is a mystery, but conquer it she did.