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Niagara Falls
KNOWLEDGE OF Niagara Falls
"Onguiaahra:" An Iroquois word meaning “Thunder of Waters or, more prosaically, “The Straits. Today’s “Niagara results from the written transcription of the word into French in the 17th century.
While the Falls themselves are relatively young at 12,000 years old, it was a measly 500 years ago that they split into today’s Canadian Horseshoe and American Falls (with the Bridal Veil Falls forming a third, very narrow set). In the middle sits Goat Island, named to commemorate a herd of goats that froze to death on the island during the winter of 1780.
Although a rich hunting, fishing and food-gathering ground for native peoples for thousands of years, the first recorded non-native sighting of the Falls took place in 1678, when a Recollet father by the name of Louis Hennepin stood on the edge and marvelled at what he must have felt was one of God’s natural wonders. He went on to write a book about his travels—Description de la Louisiane—which was widely read in Europe. His name is now on parks, streets and other memorials throughout the Niagara Region, including Hennepin Park in Buffalo. A seven-foot-high mural by American painter Thomas Hart Benton, depicting Father Hennepin and a group of Native Americans at Niagara Falls, hangs near the main entrance of the Niagara Power Project Visitors’ Center.
Conflict in paradise
At the turn of the 19th century, the natural beauty of the region didn’t spare it from the political machinations between a feisty young republic itching to flex its might and a behemoth British Empire determined to show the upstart it still had plenty of firepower left before the sun set—and no doubt smarting from the licking it had taken less then 40 years before.
Thus, the stage was set for the War of 1812, the first and thankfully last war between the U.S. and Canada, which now boast the longest undefended border in the world. One story has it that, when President James Madison declared war, British and American officers were having their traditional dinner and drinks at Fort George on the Canadian side near the village of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Gentlemen that they were, they agreed to finish those drinks and accompanying conversations before starting up hostilities the following day.
The war raged for two bloody years with American troops invading the Canadian side and shelling positions across from Fort Niagara, as well as securing Fort Erie and Queenston, at least temporarily. However, amid accusations of cowardice, bungled orders and even a duel between two U.S. generals who disagreed on tactics, the Americans were eventually driven back across the border. Ironically, a treaty left the boundaries pretty much as they were before the hostilities began.
While the Falls themselves are relatively young at 12,000 years old, it was a measly 500 years ago that they split into today’s Canadian Horseshoe and American Falls (with the Bridal Veil Falls forming a third, very narrow set). In the middle sits Goat Island, named to commemorate a herd of goats that froze to death on the island during the winter of 1780.
Although a rich hunting, fishing and food-gathering ground for native peoples for thousands of years, the first recorded non-native sighting of the Falls took place in 1678, when a Recollet father by the name of Louis Hennepin stood on the edge and marvelled at what he must have felt was one of God’s natural wonders. He went on to write a book about his travels—Description de la Louisiane—which was widely read in Europe. His name is now on parks, streets and other memorials throughout the Niagara Region, including Hennepin Park in Buffalo. A seven-foot-high mural by American painter Thomas Hart Benton, depicting Father Hennepin and a group of Native Americans at Niagara Falls, hangs near the main entrance of the Niagara Power Project Visitors’ Center.
Conflict in paradise
At the turn of the 19th century, the natural beauty of the region didn’t spare it from the political machinations between a feisty young republic itching to flex its might and a behemoth British Empire determined to show the upstart it still had plenty of firepower left before the sun set—and no doubt smarting from the licking it had taken less then 40 years before.
Thus, the stage was set for the War of 1812, the first and thankfully last war between the U.S. and Canada, which now boast the longest undefended border in the world. One story has it that, when President James Madison declared war, British and American officers were having their traditional dinner and drinks at Fort George on the Canadian side near the village of Niagara-on-the-Lake. Gentlemen that they were, they agreed to finish those drinks and accompanying conversations before starting up hostilities the following day.
The war raged for two bloody years with American troops invading the Canadian side and shelling positions across from Fort Niagara, as well as securing Fort Erie and Queenston, at least temporarily. However, amid accusations of cowardice, bungled orders and even a duel between two U.S. generals who disagreed on tactics, the Americans were eventually driven back across the border. Ironically, a treaty left the boundaries pretty much as they were before the hostilities began.
Chapi