WHAT HAPPENS IN NIAGARA FALLS, STAYS IN NIAGARA FALLS
Penny For Your thoughts By: Nancy Whitaker
Did you know that way back on October 24, 1901, a 63-year-old schoolteacher named Annie Edson Taylor became the *first* person ever to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel? At the time women were considered the weaker sex and Annie decided in her lifetime that women could do great things
Annie Edson made her presence in this world on October 24, 1838. Born in Auburn, New York, she was one of eight children to Merrick Edson and Lucretia Waring. At the age of 12, her father, who owned a flour mill, suddenly passed away.
Fortunately for Annie and her family, her father had secured them financially, and they continued to live comfortably.
After Annie completed her college schooling, she went off to get her teaching certificate, which she achieved through a four-year training program.
It was during her studies at the training program where Annie met a man named David Taylor. They began courting and got married. While they lived well financially, they weren’t without their struggles. The couple had one child, a son, who passed away during infancy.
Tragedy would strike the Taylor family again when David passed away while fighting in the Civil War. The couple had been married for seven years at David’s passing. Without David, Annie began to struggle financially, and soon she found herself moving from place to place.
Of course after his death she apparently wasn’t rolling in dough and was looking for a bit of fame and fortune which may bring her some money. . If she accomplished something great the New York-born Taylor moved all over the U. S. before settling in Bay City, Michigan, around 1898.
In July 1901, while reading an article about the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, she learned of the growing popularity of two enormous water falls. Taylor came up with the perfect attention-getting stunt: She would go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. Imagine, at age 63, deciding to strap yourself into a custom-made pickle barrel, all padded up, and getting tossed into the mighty Niagara River! But she decided to go through with it.
Taylor chose to take the ride on her birthday, October 24. (She claimed she was in her 40s, but genealogical records later showed she was 63.) With the help of two assistants, Taylor strapped herself into a leather harness inside a custom made wooden pickle barrel 5 ft high and three feet around. With cushions lining the barrel to break her fall, Taylor was towed by a small boat into the middle of the fast-flowing Niagara River and cut loose. Whoo! There she goes!
Knocked violently from side to side by the rapids and then propelled over the edge of Horseshoe Falls, Taylor reached the shore alive, but battered, around 20 minutes after her journey began.
To everyone’s relief, she was able to walk, talk, and only had a small gash on her head. It is reported that she told people, “I would sooner walk up the mouth of a cannon, knowing it was going to blow me to pieces than make another trip over the fall.”
But after a brief period of photo-ops and speaking engagements, her fame cooled, and she was unable to make the fortune for which she had hoped. In fact she died penniless.
What a feat. I am scared of water, so I would have been afraid to even get close to those falls.
Taylor was not the first person to attempt the plunge over the famous falls. In October 1829, Sam Patch, known as the Yankee Leaper, survived jumping down the 175-foot Horseshoe Falls of the Niagara River, on the Canadian side of the border, without anything on him.
She did, however, inspire a number of copy-cat daredevils. Between 1901 and 1995, 15 people went over the falls; 10 of them survived. Among those who died were Jesse Sharp, who took the plunge in a kayak in 1990, and Robert Overcracker, who used a jet ski in 1995. No matter the method, going over Niagara Falls is illegal, and survivors face charges and stiff fines on either side of the border.
In 1969 the USArmy Corps of Engineers drained a portion of Niagara Falls. A temporary damn was built and they were able to check out things about the Falls.
What they found at the floor of the Niagara Falls human remains of a man and woman, lots of coins, sunglasses, a car and car parts and 100 years of lost tourist attractions.
You know it made me tired just thinking of getting in a pickle barrel and going down Niagara Falls. I don’t think I would try it for a million bucks. People go there for honeymoons and sightseeing so I wondered if anyone reading this has visited Niagara Falls?
Let me know, and I’ll give you a Penny For Your Thoughts.