The History of the Niagara Falls Old Scow + Now & Then Comparisons
On August 6th, 1918, two men were working on a sand barge being towed in the Upper Niagara River.
The tug boat that was doing the towing got stuck on a sandbar, and in the efforts to free it, the towline snapped, and the black steel Scow began drifting downstream.
Other tug boats gave chase, but were not able to throw the crew a line.
Full Story and Photo Gallery:
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The men on board, Gustave Lofberg and James Harris of Buffalo New York, dropped the Scow's 6-ton anchor, but the chain broke and the barge's drifting towards the thundering Falls continued.
Then, the barge ran aground on a shoal 2500 feet (762 metres) from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls.
The five power stations on the river ran their turbines at full speed to keep the river level as low as possible, while The Niagara Parks Police, The Niagara Falls Fire and Police Departments and The U.S. Coast Guard used a cannon, lines and a breeches buoy to set up a rescue from the roof of the Toronto Power Plant.
It was gruelling work, and the lines shot to the Scow kept tangling.
At 3:00 a.m., with the block and tackle twisted halfway out, Niagara Falls Riverman hero and daredevil, Red Hill volunteered to go out on the breeches buoy and untangle them.
Eventually, both Lofberg and Harris were retrieved safely after more than 18 hours stranded on the barge.
A local urban legend states that one of the men trapped on the boat came back with white hair from the terror of the rescue.
Since that day in 1918 the Scow has sat firm in its position, jammed up against rock, pummelled year after year by water, ice, wind and rain. The old Iron Scow has been a tourist destination for decades and its story has been by locals time and time again.
The Scow suffered a great deal of erosion over the years, eventually the US facing side of the scow was completely eroded away but the Canadian facing side remained recognizable as a boat,
until Halloween, 2019.
On October 31st, 2019 a wind storm flipped the Scow over onto its side and blew it about 50 metres closer to the brink of the Falls.
News of the shifting Scow gripped the city of Niagara Falls with locals flocking to the scene to see the Scow for themselves.
Watch the video to get the rest of the story and check out my website for more photos and information
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Thanks to the following for some of the footage used in the video:
Some Footage Courtesy Of:
Niagara Falls Public Library Archives
Karin Miedema/Karins Photography
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DaveTV/YouTube
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The Vanishing Point
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R.S. Douglas/YouTube
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Christine Hess Photography
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Maxim Gladkoff
Niagara History and Trivia
