1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:05,120 Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio, 2 00:00:05,800 --> 00:00:09,720 Speaker 1: Hello and Welcome to This Day in History Class, a 3 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:15,600 Speaker 1: show that demystifies history one day at a time. I'm 4 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:19,239 Speaker 1: Gabe Bluesier, and in this episode we're talking about the 5 00:00:19,320 --> 00:00:23,720 Speaker 1: confusing day when Niagara Falls stood still for the first 6 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:35,120 Speaker 1: time in recorded history. The day was March twenty ninth, 7 00:00:35,320 --> 00:00:39,640 Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight. In ice jam in Lake Erie caused 8 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,840 Speaker 1: Niagara Falls to slow to a trickle. Here's a quick 9 00:00:43,920 --> 00:00:47,280 Speaker 1: refresher in case your topography is as rusty as mine. 10 00:00:47,920 --> 00:00:51,440 Speaker 1: There's a narrow waterway that flows from the higher elevation 11 00:00:51,640 --> 00:00:55,560 Speaker 1: of Lake Erie to the much lower elevation of Lake Ontario. 12 00:00:56,520 --> 00:01:00,000 Speaker 1: This channel is thought to have formed naturally about twelve 13 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,080 Speaker 1: one thousand years ago, and today it's known as the 14 00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:07,360 Speaker 1: Niagara River. You've probably worked it out already, but the 15 00:01:07,400 --> 00:01:10,760 Speaker 1: point at which the river drops down into Lake Ontario 16 00:01:11,200 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: is what we now know as Niagara Falls. Despite a 17 00:01:15,319 --> 00:01:19,360 Speaker 1: relatively mild winter, a large portion of Lake Erie still 18 00:01:19,400 --> 00:01:23,679 Speaker 1: froze over in eighteen forty eight. Then, as spring arrived, 19 00:01:23,959 --> 00:01:27,280 Speaker 1: a strong wind blew in from the southwest and set 20 00:01:27,319 --> 00:01:31,480 Speaker 1: the loose ice in motion. Over the course of several days, 21 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:35,120 Speaker 1: millions of tons of ice collected at the mouth of 22 00:01:35,160 --> 00:01:39,200 Speaker 1: the Niagara River, one layer piling on top of another 23 00:01:39,560 --> 00:01:44,080 Speaker 1: until the channel was completely clogged. The first to notice 24 00:01:44,120 --> 00:01:48,920 Speaker 1: the reduced water flow was American farmer Jed Porter. Shortly 25 00:01:49,000 --> 00:01:52,760 Speaker 1: before midnight on March twenty ninth, eighteen forty eight, he 26 00:01:52,840 --> 00:01:55,720 Speaker 1: went out for his nightly stroll on the American side 27 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,640 Speaker 1: of the falls. It was too dark to see from 28 00:01:58,680 --> 00:02:01,680 Speaker 1: a distance that the falls were no longer flowing, but 29 00:02:01,760 --> 00:02:05,400 Speaker 1: Porter noticed their silence right away. He then went to 30 00:02:05,440 --> 00:02:09,240 Speaker 1: the river's edge and found that hardly any water was flowing. 31 00:02:10,240 --> 00:02:13,200 Speaker 1: The next morning, the rest of the villagers woke up 32 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,919 Speaker 1: to the same unsettling silence, and because news traveled slowly 33 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:21,079 Speaker 1: in those days, none of them had any idea why 34 00:02:21,120 --> 00:02:24,320 Speaker 1: the water had stopped flowing. All they knew for sure 35 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:27,040 Speaker 1: was that the steady roar of the falls that had 36 00:02:27,040 --> 00:02:30,480 Speaker 1: been with them all their lives was gone. And if 37 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:34,120 Speaker 1: that weren't troubling enough, all the water wheels that fueled 38 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:39,840 Speaker 1: their mills and factories had stopped turning. Many locals feared 39 00:02:39,880 --> 00:02:43,280 Speaker 1: the worst, interpreting the drought as a kind of divine 40 00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:46,080 Speaker 1: judgment or a sign that the world was coming to 41 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:50,400 Speaker 1: an end. Churches held special services all day to help 42 00:02:50,440 --> 00:02:53,440 Speaker 1: ease the tension, and with so many people out of work, 43 00:02:53,720 --> 00:02:57,560 Speaker 1: thousands were said to have attended. The mood along the 44 00:02:57,680 --> 00:03:01,720 Speaker 1: river brightened considerably several hours hours later, once news from 45 00:03:01,800 --> 00:03:04,720 Speaker 1: Buffalo revealed that an ice dam was to blame for 46 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,959 Speaker 1: the stoppage, the sense of dread that had hung over 47 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:12,600 Speaker 1: the area quickly gave way to curiosity. Locals and tourists 48 00:03:12,639 --> 00:03:17,320 Speaker 1: alike marveled at the exposed cliffs and riverbed. The more 49 00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:20,640 Speaker 1: adventurous even crossed from one side to the other, some 50 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:25,720 Speaker 1: on foot and some in horse drawn buggies. US Cavalry 51 00:03:25,760 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: soldiers got in on the fun as well, reportedly racing 52 00:03:29,160 --> 00:03:33,680 Speaker 1: up and down the empty river bed on horseback. Meanwhile, 53 00:03:34,080 --> 00:03:38,200 Speaker 1: just upstream in Chippewa, villagers combed the rock floor of 54 00:03:38,240 --> 00:03:42,040 Speaker 1: the channel in search of newly unearthed souvenirs from decades 55 00:03:42,120 --> 00:03:47,480 Speaker 1: old battles. They found muskets, bayonets, tomahawks, and other items 56 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:51,760 Speaker 1: presumably lost during the War of eighteen twelve. It was 57 00:03:51,800 --> 00:03:55,960 Speaker 1: a risky move to explore or excavate the dried up riverbed, 58 00:03:56,280 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: as there was no way of knowing when the rushing 59 00:03:58,520 --> 00:04:02,360 Speaker 1: waters might suddenly return. But back at the falls there 60 00:04:02,480 --> 00:04:04,960 Speaker 1: was at least one person for whom the risk was 61 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:08,320 Speaker 1: actually worth it, the owner of the famous Maid of 62 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:12,840 Speaker 1: the Missed sightseeing boat. His company had been giving tourists 63 00:04:12,960 --> 00:04:16,400 Speaker 1: river rides below the falls for two years at that point, 64 00:04:16,720 --> 00:04:19,200 Speaker 1: but there was a patch of jagged rocks that they 65 00:04:19,240 --> 00:04:23,320 Speaker 1: always had to avoid during crossings, and so now that 66 00:04:23,400 --> 00:04:26,920 Speaker 1: the river was dry, the boat's owner seized his chance 67 00:04:27,040 --> 00:04:30,680 Speaker 1: and had the pesky rocks blasted away with explosives once 68 00:04:30,720 --> 00:04:35,359 Speaker 1: and for all. All of this leisure, panic and hard 69 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:38,919 Speaker 1: labor played out over the course of roughly thirty hours. 70 00:04:39,520 --> 00:04:43,520 Speaker 1: Then the wind shifted, the ice jam gave way, and 71 00:04:43,640 --> 00:04:46,960 Speaker 1: water from Lake Erie resumed its course down the river. 72 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,640 Speaker 1: By the evening of March thirty first, the river was 73 00:04:50,760 --> 00:04:54,360 Speaker 1: full and the falls were roaring again loud as ever. 74 00:04:55,720 --> 00:04:59,480 Speaker 1: To prevent this strange occurrence from happening again, a massive 75 00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,719 Speaker 1: boom is now installed at the mouth of Niagara River 76 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,279 Speaker 1: each year. It's made up of a series of steel 77 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,839 Speaker 1: pontoons that are anchored to the riverbed, helping to block 78 00:05:09,960 --> 00:05:13,400 Speaker 1: or break up large ice formations before they can enter 79 00:05:13,440 --> 00:05:17,160 Speaker 1: the river. Thanks to the boom. Niagara Falls has been 80 00:05:17,200 --> 00:05:21,960 Speaker 1: flowing steadily ever since, except for on one other occasion. 81 00:05:22,920 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: From June to November of nineteen sixty nine, the US 82 00:05:26,880 --> 00:05:31,440 Speaker 1: Army Corps of Engineers stopped up the American Falls on purpose. 83 00:05:32,279 --> 00:05:34,839 Speaker 1: They were trying to determine the best way to remove 84 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:37,960 Speaker 1: the rocks and other debris that it accumulated at the 85 00:05:38,000 --> 00:05:41,599 Speaker 1: base of the waterfall. Research showed that if the rocks 86 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:44,880 Speaker 1: were left in place, rapids would eventually form in that 87 00:05:44,960 --> 00:05:48,320 Speaker 1: part of the river, making the area much more dangerous 88 00:05:48,360 --> 00:05:52,920 Speaker 1: for visitors. The engineers built Coffer dams above the falls 89 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,919 Speaker 1: to divert the flow of water to Horseshoe Falls on 90 00:05:55,960 --> 00:05:59,559 Speaker 1: the Canadian side. Then they spent the next five months 91 00:05:59,680 --> 00:06:04,280 Speaker 1: removed moving unstable boulders, and installing rockfall sensors along the 92 00:06:04,320 --> 00:06:07,839 Speaker 1: cliff face. The Army Corps had hope to clear the 93 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,800 Speaker 1: base completely, but later concluded that removing all the rocks 94 00:06:11,880 --> 00:06:14,920 Speaker 1: could weaken the cliff and even speed up its erosion. 95 00:06:15,839 --> 00:06:18,880 Speaker 1: The team concluded that the best option was to just 96 00:06:19,120 --> 00:06:22,880 Speaker 1: step away and let nature do its thing. On November 97 00:06:22,920 --> 00:06:26,440 Speaker 1: twenty fifth, nineteen sixty nine, the Coffer dams were taken 98 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:30,599 Speaker 1: down and the Mighty Niagara roared back to life yet again. 99 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:36,840 Speaker 1: I'm Gabe blues Yay, and hopefully you now know a 100 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:40,880 Speaker 1: little more about history today than you did yesterday. If 101 00:06:40,880 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: you'd like to keep up with the show, you can 102 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:47,920 Speaker 1: follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at TDI HC Show, 103 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:51,080 Speaker 1: and if you have any comments or suggestions, feel free 104 00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:53,520 Speaker 1: to send them my way by writing to this Day 105 00:06:53,839 --> 00:06:58,600 Speaker 1: at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias for producing 106 00:06:58,600 --> 00:07:01,279 Speaker 1: the show, and thanks to you for listening. I'll see 107 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:05,160 Speaker 1: you back here again tomorrow for another day in History class.