Since the late nineteenth century, Niagara Falls has been heavily engineered to generate energy behind a flowing façade designed to appeal to tourists. Fixing Niagara Falls reveals the technological feats and cross-border politics that facilitated the transformation of one of the most important natural sites in North America. Daniel Macfarlane shows how this natural wonder is essentially a tap: huge tunnels around the reconfigured Falls channel the waters of the Niagara River, which ebb and flow according to the tourism calendar. This book offers a unique interdisciplinary and transborder perspective on how the Niagara landscape embodies the power of technology and nature.
A sweeping history of this natural wonder, from its geological beginnings to the present. "The noble cataract reflects the concerns, failings, and fancies of the times. If we gaze deeply into its shimmering image we can perhaps discern our own." - page 22 “[Pierre Berton] makes a serious and convincing case for Niagara's pivotal role in North American history. ... His Niagara is a lodestar for North American culture and invention: site of the first railway suspension bridge, inspiration for Nikola Tesla's discovery of the principle of alternating current, and the subject of Frederic Church's most celebrated landscape; a natural wonder that has bewitched generations of scientists, authors, and utopians, and stimulated innovations and social movements still casting long shadows. ... surprising, rich and engrossing.” -- Thurston Clarke, New York Times Book Review “Canadian historian Berton tells dozens of absorbing tales about the region and those who passed through it ... He tells them all superbly, aided by essential maps and a few reproductions of posters advertising some of the more bizarre stunts.” -- Publishers Weekly “Entertaining. . . . Berton brings to life the adventurers and dreamers, visionaries and industrialists, who over centuries have been drawn to the Falls.” -- Maclean’s "Berton at his storytelling best; there is something here for everyone. ... a vintage, full-bodied read." -- The London Free Press "A book worth diving into." -- Calgary Herald "By turns ironic, amused, shocked, horrified and awestruck, Berton traces Niagara's history through the deeds of those who came in contact with it ... all the while walking the fine line between detachment and emotion with agility and grace." -- The Whig-Standard (Kingston) Pierre Berton was one of Canada’s most popular and prolific authors, and is widely credited with popularizing Canadian history. His previous books include The Wild Frontier, Prisoners of the North, Klondike, The Invasion of Canada, and The Great Depression.
Americans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will. Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, Inventing Niagara traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara. From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, Inventing Niagara shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today.
Blacks in Niagara Falls narrates and analyzes the history of Black Niagarans from the days of the Underground Railroad to the Age of Urban Renewal. Michael B. Boston details how Black Niagarans found themselves on the margins of society from the earliest days to how they came together as a community to proactively fight and struggle to obtain an equal share of society's opportunities. Boston explores how Blacks came to Niagara Falls in increasing numbers usually in search of economic opportunities, later establishing essential institutions, such as churches and community centers, which manifested and reinforced their values, and interacted with the broader community, seeking an equitable share of other society opportunities. This singular examination of a small city significantly contributes to Urban History and African American Studies scholarly research, which generally focuses on large cities. Combining primary source data with extensive interviews gathered over an eighteen-year period in which the author immersed himself in the Niagara community, Blacks in Niagara Falls offers an insightful study of how one small city community grew over its unique history.
...makes some notable contributions to the popular and scholarly literature about the Niagara region...a welcome addition to the literature of US-Canada cross-border studies. -The Canadian Historical Review...provides a most engaging and eloquently written story, a learned tale of the Niagara region's associated historical triumphs and abiding challenges. The book's geographical and social histories will be of interest not only to residents of the Niagara Frontier but to anyone who has ever been fascinated by the complexly related natural and technological wonders that have helped to make Niagara one of the world's most famous and enduring icons. -ISLEThis in-depth regional study of the Niagara Frontier traces the evolution of landscape and patterns of settlement on both sides of the Niagara River extending from St. Catharines, Ontario, to Lockport, New York. This significant region, astride an international frontier, both connects and separates, unites and divides Canadian and American territories bordering the Niagara River.Like map overlays that build on an underlying base geography, Professor Jackson's chronological approach begins with the qualities of the physical background and their ongoing ramifications up to the present for the use and development of land. He then adds the Native settlements, showing their trails and economic activities, while highlighting the amazing fact that certain Native features remain an intrinsic part of the modern landscape. The next time period reveals that the previous human landscapes, once continuous across the Niagara River, became acutely discontinuous with the creation in 1783 of an unseen but divisive international boundary.Subsequent chapters follow the changes over the course of time as canals, railways, hydroelectric power, and the dominance of the automobile in the present era all transform the environment. Jackson also discusses Niagara Falls as the fulcrum around which the Niagara Frontier has developed and the impact of the tourist industry on the region. This thorough analysis of an important international region will be of great use to students of regional, urban, and historical geography as well as to anyone involved in cross-boundary trade, education, or tourism.John N. Jackson (St. Catharines, Ontario) is professor emeritus of applied geography at Brock University and the author of fourteen previous books on regional geography and history.John Burtniak (St. Catharines), now retired, was the special collections librarian and university archivist at Brock University.Gregory P. Stein (Buffalo, NY) is associate professor of geography and planning at SUNY College at Buffalo.
Explore the history of Niagara Falls by using the full page illustrations as you travel in time with the books characters. From the Native Americans to the wars of Colonial America, from the daredevils to the power of the Niagara, will be enriched by the history of the Niagara region.
