National Park After Dark - The Heroine of Niagara Falls

Episode Date: July 15, 2024

This week we venture to one of the most iconic waterfalls in the world to talk about the daredevils who have gone over it. Most notably, Annie Edson Taylor, who was the first to ever go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and survive. For a full list of our sources, visit npadpodcast.com/episodesFor the latest NPAD updates, group travel details, merch and more, follow us on npadpodcast.com and our socials:Instagram: @‌nationalparkafterdarkTikTok: @‌nationalparkafterdarkSupport the show by becoming an Outsider and receive ad free listening, bonus content and more on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Want to see our faces? Catch full episodes on our YouTube Page!Thank you to this week’s partners!Liquid IV: Use code NPAD at checkout to get 20% off you first order.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Work your magic For the normal everyday person The risks we take are minimized to the best of our abilities We wear a seatbelt while driving And a helmet while riding a bike We all search for our avenues of fun and enjoyment But most can safely say they are not a thrill seeker or a person who enjoys taking part in extreme sports and activities that involve physical risk and even death.

While the majority of us are not these daredevils, research has found that 30% of the population are born with a thrill-seeking gene and are in constant search of their next dopamine high from the sensation of risking it all. Harold Houdini is one of the most famous illusionists in the world. He became known around the world for stunts that he performed, like escaping a Chinese water torture cell, after being shackled, hung upside down underwater in front of a live audience, and escaping. In 1877, Rosa Ritcher became the first human cannonball when she was catapulted 30 feet in London. Felipe Petit was a high wire artist who, without permission, walked across a tightrope between the New York City Twin Towers in 1974.

Valerie Rosef was a Russian base jumper who set world records when he jumped from the highest peak in the world, Mount Everest, and survived. daredevils can be found around the world, but some places attract these people more than others. Arguably, one of the most enticing places for thrill seekers is Niagara Falls. Welcome to National Park After Dark. I don't know if I'm going to be able to relate to anything in this episode because I am not a daredevil, but I can't wait to hear about it. Yeah, I like to try new things, but I don't think I can confidently say that any of the stories I'm going to tell today or something that I would want to do myself.

Well, before you get into it, we have a couple things to say. Housekeeping is, I believe, what it's called. First and foremost, to everybody who has been listening with us for the last three plus years, thank you so much. If you have not yet, we would really appreciate a moment of your time to just go over to either Spotify or Apple and leave us a rating and or review if you are able. If you have nice things to say. Yeah, that would be lovely.

Yeah. And then the other thing is Cassie just gave us a little treat. Yeah. Over on Patreon. Well, second housekeeping thing is I tried outdoor rock climbing for the first time in my entire life. And it was amazing. And now I want to do it again.

And I actually, I did my own trip to the Grand Teton's. It was a personal trip and it was really fun and awesome. And it was a five-day trip, but we packed so much into it that I thought it would be really fun to add my itinerary to Patreon. So if you guys are interested, if you're planning a trip to the Grand Teton's, if you want to go outdoor rock climbing, maybe go in with a little bit more experience than I did. But I have the itinerary and all the companies we used and things that I posted on Patreon if you're interested in that. But highly recommend the Teton's, I've said for a while.

It's my favorite national park. And that still holds true. I mean, I had a great time. I'm glad. And I'm glad you're back. You were gone for so long. So long for five days. Leaving me in Maine stranded.

Stranded. You know I'm not comfortable. here. They barely even know the East Coast anymore and you just left me here. Yeah, so check out Patreon if you are interested in bonus content like what Cassie just described and add free episodes and bonus material and episodes and then please, please, just take a hot second to leave us a rating and review. It really helps. I never understood as a just a listener of like what's the big deal. Like, why do you need to hear from me? But from Our end, it really helps grow the show in podcasty, algorithm-y ways. And it helps get the show to other people who may not have stumbled across it without the boost in reviews and ratings. So that would be much appreciated. Yeah. And again, thank you, everyone who does tune in. And today I do have a really interesting story that I'm excited to go to. So as I said in the intro that we're going to Niagara Falls today, which is a little close to my heart because I have a lot of family that live in.

Niagara Falls and I've been going there since I can remember since I was a little kid. And I will say almost none of these stories that I'm going to talk about today are things that I had heard of before. So I'm excited to dive into it. So we were going to be talking about the daredevils and adrenaline junkies that have been attracted to these massive waterfalls for generations. I'm going to talk about activities like tightroping, jet skiing, and what we will mainly be focusing on today, people putting themselves in a barrel and going over Niagara Falls. And Niagara Falls, I've only been twice. It's obviously National Park tied. I thought it was a state park. Am I? No, you're right. It is a state park. Lost. I really finagled this one. Okay, it's national park adjacent. That's fine. No, there is a national park site. So I did add in a national park site to this. So it is not even adjacent, but it was a stretch to find it. So the National Park is the Niagara Falls National. heritage area, which preserves significance within the area, including a city, two towns,

two villages, a host of parks, sites, and attractions all along the Niagara River. So the National Park Service is present there. Niagara Falls is a state park. You are correct in that. Okay. So I kind of had to be a little bit more choosy about where we go. But part of why that there are national park ties here is because the Niagara Falls region has significant historical associations with indigenous peoples, early European exploration, the French and Indian War, the American Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Underground Railroad, which is a whole other very interesting part of history there, which maybe we'll come back to at some point. But the Falls have also been an important site for hydroelectric power and are known to be producing 2.6 million kilowatts

of clean electricity per year. So it's very, the Niagara Falls is a very significant place and does have a national park tie-in, kind of. That's okay. You don't have to explain it to me. Well, it's outside. It is outside. And I do like finding these small national park tie-ins because some are hard to find and they're not these massive things.

And you would think Niagara Falls would make sense to be a national park because it's so significant in one of the, I mean, like the fastest moving falls in the world or most powerful. So I do want to go a little bit into Niagara Falls because Niagara Falls contains three massive waterfalls, which have been named Horseshoe Falls, which is on the Canadian side, American Falls, and Bridal Vale Falls. And I think it's also important to know if you haven't been to Niagara Falls, it is split between Canada and the U.S. So if you're there, bring your passport if you want to travel to both sides. But I will say the Canadians, have you been to the Canadian side? No. Oh my God. No. The American side is trash in comparison, which is sad because I think the American side could be so much more than it is.

But, and obviously my family's from that area and not exactly Niagara Falls, but close by. And when you go, so you are on the American side. And it's a couple restaurants. There's obviously people there who are looking at the falls and there's a lot of attraction there. But the city itself is pretty run down. There's not a lot going on. If you're there at night, there's almost no night. There's almost no nightlife going on.

But when you cross over the bridge and you go to the Canadian side, it is like you are walking into Vegas. There are lights everywhere. There's like Ripley's, believe it or not, there's these go-carts that have this huge track. They have this huge building that you can go up to the top and eat dinner over the falls. They have zip lines. They have, like, it's just this crazy array of lights and restaurants and things to do. And there are thousands of people versus the other side. side that has like a couple hundred. And it's a very, very different experience from one side to the

other. And the Canadian side also has a better view. So Canada's got us on this one. Well, it sounds like we got to hand that one to them, which is fine. Yeah, they can have it. But I will say that the American side needs to step it up because there's definitely potential there. But Canada, Canada has this beat. So for Niagara Falls, I do want to go a little bit into about the Falls in case you're not familiar with it. I know we've both been there, but I think a lot of people haven't. So I just wanted to explain it a little bit. Like I said before, there's three massive waterfalls that are here. There's the horseshoe falls, which I said was on the Canadian side, American Falls and Bridal Vale Falls. And they range from 78 feet or 24 meters tall to 187 feet or 57 meters tall, with horseshoe falls being the largest of them all. And I will say that these are not the tallest waterfalls in the world. There are actually more than 500 waterfalls. that beat their height by a lot. But what makes these ones so incredible is how wide they are and the force of water that is always passing through them.

There's no drought here. You know, like the water never freezes. The rush of water that goes through here is so insane. But if you think of like Yosemite Falls, Yosemite Falls is significantly higher than these ones, but the amount of water that passes through is much less. So that is why Niagara Falls is so impressive.

It's interesting because I feel like, Is it they've never frozen ever? Interesting. I just feel like every, not every waterfall, but especially in an area where Niagara is located, you would think that it's so cold. Right. Yeah. Yeah, you would think that.

And I actually wrote like a fun little fact here for why it doesn't freeze. So Horseshoe Falls is the largest one. And it's 2,590 feet wide or 790 meters. And it has 681,770. 50 gallons of water per second that flow through it. And because they move so quickly and with so much force, that's why it never freezes. Despite temperatures reach as low as negative 18 degrees Fahrenheit or negative 20 degrees Celsius. So it's clearly just the sheer force of these waterfalls that are keeping it from being frozen. It's not necessarily the temperature. But also because of the force of these

waterfalls, going over one of them seems like would be almost not survivable. And in most circumstances, it definitely isn't. But several sources that I found have reported that there have been over 5,000 deaths at the fall since the 1800s. And these range from daredevils, suicides, accidents, and even murders that have occurred at the waterfalls. And I want to go into a couple of the stories. I am going to veer away from the sadder ones. This is going to be a dare double story. We're not going to go into, I mean, they are said there's some deaths in here, but we're strictly focusing on adrenaline today. So in this episode, I'll tell the story of the first person who was a woman who barreled off the falls and survived. And for that, I just explained

how incredible that is for someone to be able to do that. But what's also incredible about her name is Annie, her story, is that she wrote about it herself in a memoir that she titled Over the Falls, how the horseshoe fall was conquered, which was how I found a lot of my research for her story, which is really cool because there's not a lot of times where you read firsthand experiences, especially in this time frame because this was in the very early 1900s. But along with her story, I wanted to start it off with a few other documented stories over the falls to really kind of highlight how incredible it is of what she did and how she survived. This episode is brought to you by Prime.

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1853 when three men attempted to row from Go Island, which is a small island on Niagara River between Bridal Falls and Horseshoe Falls. Their boat capsized and immediately two of the men were carried off the falls and killed because the force is just so strong and it's really tall too. So going over it is very dangerous. But the third man was able to grab onto some tree roots on a rock and held on for 18 hours while rescuers tried to get to him. Whoa. In this water, and the mission was deemed too dangerous to be manned. So instead, they put a boat in the water and tethered it to the island and guided it downstream from the safety of the shore. So they were like, we can't get you.

This is way too dangerous. We can't risk going over the falls, but we'll send you a boat for you to climb in. So when it reaches the man, he was able to climb into the boat. But seconds later, it capsized and he couldn't grab onto anything and was thrown over the falls and died. Oh, my God. That's heartbreaking. And I was just, it's amazing. he was able to even get into the boat. I can't even get onto a raft after going tubing. You know what I mean? Like your arms are little noodles. Like tired, yeah. He was holding on in the Niagara Current for 18 hours. I mean, obviously your life is on the line. It's a little different. Even though sometimes it felt like my life was on the line when I was waiting in the ocean for the boat to come back around for the tube. I feel that. And I thought I was going to get nabbed by a shark every time. Fair. But possible.

Especially in New England. Very possible. Yeah, I just can't 18 hours of your will to survive and then in a second you're just thrown over. It's really sad. And that was in the 1800s. But also that was an accidental death that wasn't a stunt that happened. I just thought that that was an incredible story or not incredible, but very sad story. But I also want to go into the history of, I mostly want to go into the history of erratic stunts that have happened in Niagara Falls.

Like I said in the intro, this is a place that has attracted people for gender. generations to go here and try to do crazy stuff. A man named Sam Patch, who was deemed America's first daredevil and nicknamed the Yankee Leaper, was the first person to ever successfully go over Niagara Falls, and he actually did it twice in 1829. He had gained narriety before the jump, working in a mill. He spent his spare time practicing diving over the waterfalls that powered them. And originally, he was from Rhode Island, and he began jumping off falls all over the east coast, and was being paid to do it. He was looking for a large payout and big crowds,

so he announced that he would dive over Niagara Falls. He used a platform built over the falls for him to climb up and then dive in. And then he was wearing no protection, and he planned to do it over American Falls. But the day that he announced it, there was bad weather and a delay in his jump. And the crowd was very small that watched it. And he was looking for a big payout.

He wanted a huge crowd there. He wanted a bunch of people. So when he finally made his jump, there was no one there. There was barely anyone there because of bad weather. And he was like, you know what? I just have to do it again. Like, I'm going to announce I'm going to do it again. I'm going to do it bigger, better.

He survived the first one. So he raises the platform 125 feet or 38 meters. And he announces that he's going to do it a few days later when the weather's going to be better. So on October 17th, that same year, just a couple days later, 10,000 people gathered to watch him as he successfully dived off the falls for a second time. And I mean literally, like, you think about a pool, you dive in from a diving board. That's what he did, but over Niagara Falls. That's really, I don't know any of the other stunts that you're about to say, but I feel like

that's one of the bravest. Or dumbest, I don't know. Or, but dumbest. But yeah, I mean, he had been jumping off a falls, but not like that. And just the sheer force and being crushed on, there's just so much that can go wrong. But he's. He's. He's. survived. He did ultimately end up dying jumping off a waterfall in Rochester, New York, when his dive turned into a belly flop. He did this dive twice as well, kind of like this first one. And the first one that he did at this place, he actually took a pet bear cub over with him and then dived in. Wait. And they both survived. Don't, but imagine being that bear cub, like, leave me out of this. It's like, why the fuck are we doing this right now? Why are we doing this? And yeah, so the crowd, so the bear survived,

thankfully, and he again was not super happy with his proceeds and the money that he made from this. So he announced that he was going to do it again. He was going to jump from a higher platform. And this time, a crowd of 8,000 people showed up. And they reported that before the jump, he was slurring his words. And when he did the jump, instead of going into a dive, like he normally did, he hit the river with a belly flop. And there was an audible smack. Oh, my God. Oh. And his body wasn't recovered for four months after that.

Ouch. I'm looking up pictures right now. Obviously, I've been there. We all, like, even if you haven't been there, you've seen iconic photos of the falls. Just because it's one of those things in the U.S., you know, just like. Everyone knows what it looks like. Yeah. And I'm just kind of wanted to refresh my memory just to really put this into perspective.

And I don't. I hate to say this to you, but there's some that are, they're showing it frozen. The full falls. I don't know. There's no, I don't know. There's no running water. Okay, well, I can't anywhere. I don't know. Just a picture. When I said that they haven't frozen, I mean they haven't completely frozen. Okay. I looked it up and it said it hasn't. I'm not looking at it. I'm just seeing pictures. So maybe frozen in its entirety was my question to you. Because of course, there are portions, I'm sure, that freeze over. But yeah, these are just, imagine diving headfirst. This is wild. No, thank you. Yeah, no thank you. Yeah. And it's crazy because he didn't even die on that one. He died on another one, which is still a crazy waterfall if you look it up in Rochester. But it's just like, he didn't even die on those falls. It was another one. And he did the Niagara Falls twice. He's like, I didn't get paid enough for this. And not enough people were watching. So let's do it again. Annie Edson Taylor, who is the woman that I will be talking about today.

was the first to use a barrel to go over the falls in October of 1901, and we're going to be getting into her story in a bit. But after her, others were inspired to try, and many failed or were seriously injured. So I wanted to talk about their stories after her first, and then we'll backtrack and go back to her. So in July, 1911, Bobby Beach, who was a circus performer, went over the falls in a metal barrel and survived. But at a large cost, he spent six months in the hospital with two broken kneecaps and a fractured jaw. Ouch. I feel like that's going to be this whole episode.

Like, ow. Ow. Ow. I don't like that. Yeah. Ow. Ow. Ow.

On July 4th, 1930, George Stahakis used a barrel to go over the falls and he survived the fall. However, the barrel became lodged behind the falls and rescuers couldn't free him for 18 hours. When they finally got to him, he hadn't died from the fall itself, but he died from suffocation. I was just going to ask. From not having any air. Yeah.

There's no, oh, God, that's awful. So it's like, you survive all that and you're like, yes, I did it. You feel the barrel pop up out of the water and then no one can get to you. It's just. And I know these dates are ones that feel like a really long time ago, but this isn't something that's just been happening 100 years ago. In 1995, a daredevil devised a plan to ride a jet ski to the brink of the falls where he would deploy a rocket propelled parachute, which would then land him in the river below the falls to be rescued. Unfortunately, his parachute wasn't packed correctly and wasn't attached to his body. So when he reached the edge of the falls and shot the rocket, the parachute deployed but flew away without him.

And he was thrown over the falls and died. Crazy. I mean, to each their own, live and let live. If you want to shoot yourself off of a jet ski on a waterfall with a rocket, whatever, that was. Do it. But I just. I actually know. It's very illegal.

Okay, so don't do it. Don't do it. It's very illegal now. And you get huge fines and probably jail time if you do that now. It's just so funny how I'm so anti that. But the people I love the most are so pro that. They're like, yeah, that sounds great. You know what I mean?

There has to be a level-headed one in the group. It's always me. I feel like. There has to be someone who's like, hey, are you sure that's a good idea? And then I'm largely propelled parachute. Are you sure? Then in 2003, Kirk Jones became the first person to drop into the falls without any aid. So Sam Patch, who I talked about

before, he went off of a platform and dived in. Kirk Jones just jumped into the river and swam over the falls and he survived. He reportedly did it drunk and was fined $2,300 Canadian dollars and banned for life from Canada. Oh, the whole country. Yeah, the whole country. Canada's like, no, you can't come back. But then he does it again, or he tried to do it again in 2017 from the American side where he used an inflatable ball to go over the falls. The ball, unfortunately, was ultimately found empty by the maid of the mist, the tour boat that brings you to the falls that a lot of tourists use. And his body was recovered in June near Lake Ontario. So he went over in April and he wasn't found until June. So the ball did not work. But that was his second time going over. I feel like it's a one and done thing. You know,

it's like, check, I did it, and I feel lucky to have made that. And, yeah. Don't test your luck. Don't tempt fate. Yeah, that's. Yeah. Then, of course, there are the tightrope stunts that have taken place over Niagara Falls. These have been happening since 1859, but on June 15th, 2012, I don't know if you remember

this because I know I watched it. An aerialist and stuntman Nick Wyenda became the first person to walk across a high wire. that stretched over the actual falls. It attracted an audience of 100,000 people and was streamed live on television where 10 million people watched. And I was one of, do you remember this? Because I was one of those people who watched. I was not in that group. I didn't even, I wasn't even aware.

I remember sitting in my dorm room in college watching this as it unfolded, like sweating. Being like, please don't fall. Please don't fall. And he didn't. And one year later, I don't know if you remember this one because he live streamed this one, too. but one year later he did it over the Grand Canyon. Also, I'm not in the tight rope community. Me either is just the professional television.

But the crazy part about this is that it's not just him that does this crazy stuff. His wife also does things like this and she pulled her own stunt in Niagara Falls. And she in 2017, her name, I don't know if I'm pronouncing this right, but it's Eurindira Vasquez, Wayenda. And she dangled on a rope by her. teeth from a helicopter 300 feet over the falls. Okay. I love your facial expressions this entire episode. I'm just going to say.

Didn't you say this is illegal? So are they getting special permits for this or they're just saying I'm going to just do it. I don't think so. I think for the tightroping, that one, it was streamed. I think that that one was okay. I don't know about the helicopter one though. Yeah. It's just, yeah.

That must be in the Guinness book of World Records, I would imagine. I think it is. For like longest time holding something with your teeth while being in danger or something. Like, ow. Every dentist listening is like, please don't do that. Like, please. All we want you to do is floss twice a day and brush twice a day. Don't use your mouth to dangle 300 feet above anything.

Like, I feel like I shouldn't have to say this, but. But please do not use your teeth to hang from a room. For anything other than eating. Yes. Honestly. Fair. Even when I go to rip open things with my mouth, I always, I'm getting to that point where, I don't know if it's an age thing or an awareness thing, or an anxiety thing, that I'm like, I'm going to chip my tooth. You know, just ripping something open with your teeth instead of using scissors. Oh, yeah. I'm getting to the point that I stop and seek out scissors instead of just being impatient and ripping something open with my mouth.

We're out of the opening beer bottles with teeth era. I never have done that. I haven't either, but I know a lot of people who have. And I would be lying if I said I didn't. try and then was like, ow. This isn't for me. Yeah, that's fine. This isn't for me. We made it with all our teeth. And these are just a couple of stories of people that are doing, that have done stunts at the falls. There are so many if you look them up. There's a lot of things in similar vein, but these were just a couple that jumped out at me. But the person that I wanted to really focus on today is Annie Edson Taylor, who might be one of the most remembered of them

all. So after Sam Patch's stunt, both men and women traveled to Niagara Falls in hopes that they could perform some unusual stunt there that would make them rich and famous as it had done for Sam because he made a lot of money off of his. When Annie made the journey from Bay City, Michigan to Niagara Falls, no one took her seriously when she said that she was planning to go over the falls. However, if they had any idea of who she was, had known her past, knew how ahead of her time that she was and how independent she was as a woman in the 1800s, they might have took her a little bit more seriously at first. And to also put into perspective, she was desperate for money and she was very serious about doing this stunt. Annie was always a little bit of a wild child. And starting as a child,

she always preferred to be outdoors when other girls her age were starting to dream of relationships. She was busy reading adventure books and diving into the history of the Roman Empire. She was just like, I don't care about boys. I care about fun outdoor adventures. history kind of thing. Her father died when she was 14 and she was sent away to a religious seminary school and she came from a well-off family and because of that when her family passed away, she was given an inheritance that lasted her many years but not her whole life. So she lived in wealth and was very comfortable for the first half of her life and then it sounds like later in life she was not living so luxury anymore. When she was 18 years old,

she married and shortly after she became pregnant, but it wasn't long before she was stricken with grief. Within just a few days of giving birth, her baby died and her husband died just a little after, a little over two years of marriage in the Battle of Gettysburg. So this war was going on and actually she had other families who died family members that died in Gettysburg as well. After the death of her husband and her child, she realized that she felt much too young to be married and to be dealing with this kind of thing. So she decided that she did not want to go back into married life, which was common in these days, and that she wanted to focus on school. She was unhappy with her education, and she felt that she wasn't educated in the ways that she wanted to be. And I will say she was

very strong in her faith, but she felt like the school just focused on that and kind of like the woman roles that she was supposed to be fit into, and she wanted an actual real education. So she enrolled herself in school in Albany and fell in love with learning. She later became a Victorian-era dance and etiquette teacher, which I think is pretty cool. And she just seems like such a fun, like everything in her time was kind of fun. And she was very different from most of the women in her time because she wanted to travel. And she did and she did it without a man. So from a lot of accounts it says that she did solo travel.

But some theorized that she might have found men who she had flings with that traveled with her since it was so rare in her time. So she took lovers. Yeah, she took lovers and she traveled the world. And she really did. I mean, she was everywhere. She was in the Alps. In the 1880s, she told her family she was heading to Cuba. And they all were like, do not go there.

They adamantly objected. But it didn't stop her. She boarded a ship from New York to Cuba by herself. And she stayed there for months. and people theorized that possibly she had a lover down there, but we don't really know. After that, she traveled alone from Cuba to Texas to see a friend who had moved there with her husband. And her friend has been referred to in Texas as her most intimate friend. And when she arrived, she stayed for years.

And I don't know if this is like, there were some things that said that kind of hinted that they might have been lovers, but nothing is confirmed. Okay. And especially in the 1800s, it's just hard to navigate. Like, nothing like that would have been documented, I feel like. But I kind of get the vibe. She stayed to be with her there. Her friend had a husband, but they were really close. And she went all the way to Texas to be there. So she got a job at a high school. And then she would also take vacations in New Mexico, where she would take the railroad to get there. And I want people to keep in mind that this is a really dangerous time. I mean, it's during the time of

Gettysburg. The railroad was being built. The towns were really dangerous. There were battles that were going on between settlers and indigenous people. And every vacation she went on, she was putting her life at risk. And her travels were not without incident. It wasn't like, oh, she hopped on, had a great time. I mean, in one of them, she was returning to Texas and she was chloroformed in her room. And she was searched for money that they thought that she might have had. In another instance, Annie took a stagecoach heading up north when a gang of outlaws, famously known as the Jesse James gang, overtook it while she was on the stage coach, and they were able to take a total of $3,000, which is equivalent to around $92,000 today from the passengers on board, from, I will say the male passengers.

But when it came to Annie, she was not, she was adamant that she was not giving up her money. They pressed a pistol to her head and demanded that she give the money that she was concealing in her gown. And she responded by saying, blow away, I would as soon be without brains as without money. Oh. Oh. And they must have been like taken aback or appreciated. They're like, hey, I get you. I'm here, Robin, a place for money because they spared her life after she said that. They're like, you know, I feel like it was a respect. Like, okay, respect. And I'll move on type of thing. Because I'm sure, I mean, how many people men, man or woman would have a pistol to their head would have had that response. It's kind of like, okay, like you get a pass for that.

Like, I see you. I see you. Have a good day. Wow. Yeah, so they, I mean, she ran into the right person. I would, or the right person, I feel like a lot of people would have been like, okay, you're dead. Like, what are you to me?

Do you know what I mean? Like, I feel like that was definitely a lucky pairing. Yeah. And especially, I think probably being a woman might have helped her in this situation because if a man said it, feel like it would have been like more of a right. rivalry thing, but with a woman saying it, it being so outlandish for a woman to say something like that, especially at that time, it was probably like, oh, okay. Yeah. Like I was not expecting that, but you may keep whatever you're hiding in your blocks. Yeah. Good on her. And I also think it does

attest to how much money means to her. She's like, I would rather die than not have any money. So, go ahead. Well, I mean, especially if she's so, of course, travel is expensive and always has been. It takes money to do that. So obviously the money is affording her that. But also, I mean, if for someone who doesn't want to be attached to anyone in marriage, then, I mean, at that point in time, women didn't have a lot of their own money. Like, everything was controlled by their spouse, the male spouse. So if she was so adamant against not wanting to be in a marriage and having that kind of dynamic, she has to have money. Otherwise, the only other option is to rely, or one of the only other options is to rely on a man and get involved in marriage again.

And if that was something she was not wanting to do, it makes sense. Yeah, exactly. And I mean, her whole livelihood was writing on whatever was in. She didn't have a bank account or anything like that. It's just whatever cash she had on her. So after that incident, she spent years teaching in Asheville, North Carolina, Washington, D.C., and Chattanooga, Tennessee. And she eventually landed in Bay City, Michigan, where she taught classes again and remained

there until October 4th, 1900, when she left and arrived in Niagara Falls, New York. The idea to go over Niagara Falls didn't come to her because she was this adrenaline junkie looking to conquer this huge feat, like some other people had done things not over Niagara Falls, but in the area to get basically their terror devils and that's what they like. She wasn't like that. She's not like, I thrive on adrenaline. She was purely motivated by money. Her inheritance had run out for the past few years, and she was just looking to make quick and honest money.

When she read in the newspaper, the Pan American Exposition, an event that drew in thousands of people would be coming to the area, the idea to barrel over the falls was born. She believed that this would be an opportunity to find fortune in a stunt that thousands would witness. It's like there's already a lot of people here. It's going to attract a lot of people. People are going to pay big money to see things like this to meet me after. And one of the things about Annie is that this wasn't motivated purely on money that she needed for herself. Two of her closest friends were actually in desperate need of money. One of them had a child with ailing health and the other was sick themselves and needed money for a doctor.

So she needed money, but more so her friends really needed it. And she had a strong faith and believed that because her motives were not of selfish ones that God would take care of her if she went over the falls. At the time, taking a wooden barrel over the falls wasn't something that people were doing, but they were using barrels to cross over the Niagara Whirlpool. And this is a natural occurring whirlpool in the Niagara Gorge downstream from the falls. And the whirlpool naturally spins counterclockwise, but sometimes with high water levels, it will reverse directions. And this whirlpool rapid reaches 48 kilometers per hour or 30 miles per hour.

So it's a really fast... I mean, if you're going in a circle and a whirlpool going 30 miles per hour, that is a lot. The first barrel crossing happened in 1886 with a man and woman sharing a barrel. And after that, interest in barrel crossing subsided until the 1901 Pan American exposition that took place in Buffalo. This drew in crowds of people to the area, which revitalized the idea for barrel stunts across the whirlpool rapids. People are like, wow, this is so cool. No one's done this in a while. let's gather around and watch people do this.

At the exposition on September 6, Martha Wagon Furer became the first woman to cross the rapid solo. The following day, Maude Willard attempted but died of suffocation inside of the barrel. Mod's death didn't deter Annie from her goal, even though after it, all barreling activities in the water were banned. Once Maude died, they're like, okay, we can't do this. We thought it was cool. It's not.

But she didn't care. She went about it anyway. and she marketed herself in newspapers and flyers at the exposition as a 43-year-old woman who would defy death by going over the largest of the waterfalls, which was Horseshoe Falls. But in the beginning of this, she kept her identity a secret to add mystery to the event, to try and attract people. She's like, I'm a woman. I'm going over the falls.

That's all you need to know. And she was quoted saying, I do not wish to be classed with women who are seeking neuriety. I am not going over the falls as a mere act of bravado. I feel that something may accrue from it in a financial way. And because of that, because she was all money driven for this, she hired a manager named Frank Russell, who was a carnival promoter and worked with street performers in the past to help them get paid.

She did this in hopes to maximize the amount of money she would earn and to have someone who would know how to promote her performance. And her idea was after this performance that she would go on tour, meeting and taking photographs and getting money and things like that. So that was his goal is to me. manage the finances and manage a potential tour for her. She planned to perform the stunt on her birthday, October 24th, which she said was her 43rd birthday, but we later find out through historical records that she was lying about her age. She was actually 63 years old. Oh, okay. So quite a bit

older. Quite a bit older. I mean, she's, I think about it like that's around like our parents' ages, and she's like, no, I'm 43 and just diving over the falls. And I think part of that, was because at the time, especially, it was more attractive and enticing for a younger woman. So she's like, maybe I can pass as 43. So that's how she advertises herself. When the idea of barreling over the falls came to her, she actually designed the barrel herself as well. She first began her design simply by cutting it out of paper and sewing it together with twine

to figure out exactly what she wanted. When she prefected the design, Kentucky Oak was used to build it along with 10 iron hoops to hold it sturdy and mattress padding to help absorb force from the fall. It ended up being four and a half feet tall and three feet wide and weighed about 160 pounds because of an anvil that she fastened to the bottom to prevent the barrel from being turned upside down. So that weight would kind of hold it. So she wasn't head first going down the falls. Okay. So it managed the direction of her fall. Yeah, exactly. The idea was that if Annie fell from the falls upside down, she would be at risk of breaking her neck, whereas if she fell the other direction,

her legs and her feet could take the brunt of the fall. And also within the barrel, it had a harness built inside that was used similarly to a seatbelt to keep her from being violently tossed around. It was to secure her in one spot, try and minimize any damage when she hit the water. Before, and this part's messed up. Before going over Horseshoe Falls herself, to test the barrel's durability, Annie's manager Frank Russell wanted to do a test run to make sure it could withstand the force of the fall. So on October 22nd, 1901, just two days before her stunt, out of the public eye, they tested the barrel out. And they did this by replicating the way they would send her over, bringing a boat to the middle of the Niagara River and cutting the line the barrel was attached to.

But instead of putting her in it, they used a cat. They watched as the barrel went over the falls and a group of people waited at the bottom to retrieve it. The force of the falls buried the barrel underwater for a few moments before it came bobbing back to the top again, and they were able to retrieve it quickly and open to the top. They found the cat alive with no injuries except for a small cut on its forehead. I don't, yeah. I mean, have you looked into other than the bear and the cat? What other animal?

I feel like there's more for some reason. I feel like there's more animals. That have gone over the falls. Intentionally or unintentionally. I know there was a remember that video, I think it was last year of the deer that was stuck. Like, it was in the river about to go over the falls and people were trying so hard to help it and it went over. I don't know. I feel like it sounds familiar.

It was cycling the news and stuff. And obviously like wildlife over the however many hundreds of years, thousands of years that I don't know, the geologic history of the falls. but you know that unintentionally wildlife has gone over, but I'm talking about like intentional testing or I don't know what have you. I'm trying to look. I found, yeah, there's an article that talks about animals that they have sent over. We don't have to get super into it because I don't want to like make anyone super sad. Yeah.

I just feel like it's a thing or it was a thing because people will people all. all the time. Wow. Yeah, now that I'm researching this. Is it worse than we thought? Yeah. Well, it's hard. Okay, so they did a stunt where they were sending a bunch of animals over the falls. It said, the actual animals documented were buffalo, two small bears, two raccoons, a dog, and a goose. A few reports from this day also noted two fox, 15 geese and one eagle. On the appointed day, the animals were assembled, and visitors were allowed to board the boat and view them. The total crowd was estimated at around 10,000 people. Then the vessel was towed from Black Rock to Navy Island, pointed to the falls and released, rocking in the boils and perilous waters. At the rapids, the hull was torn open and the two

bears escaped, swimming to go island, but the others were tied or caged. What? What is the purpose of this? Did you say? Only a lone goose survived to the base of the falls. It was a tourism stunt. Oh, my God. That is, that is disgusting. Yeah. Put on by what, the state or something? Or three hotel operators said they would take living animals from area forests, put them on board, and send them through the forbidding white water leading up to the falls, and then send the whole shabang over the edge. And that's the vintage news.com is what I'm reading this like just while we're for everyone listening, I'm just finding this out as I'm reading it.

I just found this article when you said that. But yeah, I knew. I just had a feeling. I just had a feeling that some icky people would do that. And the fact that 10,000 people showed up to watch that too. Yeah, which is so interesting because when you reflect back on, you know, public executions and things like that for people, I mean, obviously there's differences in that. Usually those are convicted killers and sexual abusers and things like that that people have historically gathered to witness their deaths. But tying up innocent animals to plummet them over the waterfalls for publicity is a different type of evil.

And I agree. that is something I would never want any part of other than protesting it. Right. You know? Right. Like that is insane. Sorry to divert the topic. I mean, it is relevant because I think part of why Annie and her manager did this out of the public eye was because of they were sending a cat over the falls.

And it does get out. And she ends up posing with the cat later, which I'll talk about. But I kind of think that maybe they didn't mention it as it was happening because it was a cat. and they weren't sure if it was going to live or not, but then once it did. But cats are such fragile creatures, too, and to, like, I just imagine that cat was unwell for a long time after that stunt. That's awful. It's so traumatic.

So anyway, with that, Annie's stunt was officially a go, and she actually unveiled the secret that she was the one who was going to be going over the falls before she was anonymous, and now she said, okay, this is who's going. And a lot of people were like, wait, you're the person. She looks very unassuming. She kind of has what other people wrote, like more of a wholesome vibe. Like, she doesn't look like this crazy daredevil. She looks like someone that you would see walking down the road, not someone you would see barreling off a cliff. So when people saw it, they're like, is this just some weird publicity stunt? Like, what are you talking about? You're not going to do this. So the morning of

October 24th, the day that she was set to go over the falls was a particularly cold and windy one. The weather set back the time that she would go over the falls. And as the crowds who had come to see her do this, waited for her to go over, they grew very impatient. The strong winds and the cold air and the mist from the falls made for a pretty uncomfortable experience. And as time went on, many believed that Annie wasn't going to do it. And because of this, the crowd dwindled and the massive turnout Andy expected had become a lot less. Due to whether the boat carrying Annie and her barrel didn't leave port until 2 p.m. As they left the shore, an officer waved them down yelling and demanding they return it once, but they didn't stop and they headed straight for Grass Island.

Now Grass Island is a small elongated natural island on the American side of the Niagara River, which is approximately 1,500 meters up river of the falls. This served as a good launch point for Annie, so they went to the island first to put her in the barrel and attach it to a rope behind the boat to be cut and released. When they arrived to the island, Annie took off her hat, her skirt and her coat that she was wearing before she climbed into the barrel. She then fastened herself in tightly with the harness and brought two extra pillows for her knees and her head.

Once she was in position, the lid of the barrel was screwed tightly into place and included in her design of this barrel was actually a tube that allowed air in, which was really important for after the recent suffocation incident. So what they did is they used an air pump to push fresh air into the barrel once they closed it until it reached 30 PSI,

and then Annie put a cork in the end of the tube, which she held in her hand. So if for some reason the team waiting for her at the bottom could make it to the falls, she could uncork the tube and then there would be like a small amount of air that could come in for her. Following this, she was placed into the water with a rope tied to the boat, and the two boatmen brought her out to the middle of the Niagara to the current that they believed if they let her go in, it would carry her directly over horseshoe falls.

She waited to hear the knock on the barrel that would let her know that she was officially cut loose and there was no turning back at that point. When the knock came at 3.50 p.m. she knew that she was about to conquer a feat that no one had ever done before or she was about to die. And in her memoir she wrote of this moment, she wrote, I was started on a trip no traveler had ever taken. My heart swelled and for some moments I felt as though I were being suffocated. But I determined to be brave. By a supreme effort of will, I calm myself at once and began earnestly to pray if it was God's will to spare my life, if not, to give me an easy death.

The beginning of the ride through the rapids, she describes as a pleasant experience. It would toss and turn, but relatively gently, until she came to the first real drop in the rapids. For a moment, the bottom got caught on something and swerved around, and she felt like she was being turned over and her head was facing down. But with a quick jerk, she was upright again. In another rapid, she felt the barrel become completely submerged. in water, but after a brief moment, she felt it bob above to the surface again. She then swerved to the left in a direction where she knew there was a series of giant rocks, as she had always feared she would collide into them.

But after a few more fleeting moments, she passed them without incident. At the brink of the falls, she heard the rushing water and felt the barrel come to a pause and then get ripped down with a current. She plunged 158 feet below to the river. The feeling of falling in this moment was pure horror. she describes, she felt like she lost her senses and she couldn't tell which direction she was facing in and the water just boomed around her. I mean, if you've been to the falls, you know how loud it is from far away and she's in it. In one moment, the noises were so loud and the next,

the force of the waterfall pushed her deep under the water into the river and everything went silent. Her barrel tried to resurface but was caught in the churning of the falls. The barrel whirled and thrashed and soon she was thrown to what she felt to be five feet, out of the water before falling back in and being violently tossed around, smashing into rocks and debris. This seemed to go on forever and she questioned if it would ever stop when all the sudden she was lifted from the water and she heard herself land on what felt to be a rock. When she realized she was being rescued, she immediately fell unconscious. Oh, she just passed out. She's just like, oh my God. It's over. I just thrown everywhere. Where she landed, she arose on the Canadian shore and a team

had been waiting for her. There was her friend and daredevil Carlisle Graham. He was a famous athlete who had been known for his stunts in the whirlpool rapids, both in a barrel and by swimming it. Along with him was an expert swimmer, kid Bailey, Harry Williams, who was the proprietor of the Lafayette Hotel, and engineer John Ross of the maid of the mist. They used a wrench to break open the top of the barrel, and when the fresh air hit her, she regained consciousness, and she heard a voice exclaim, she's alive. She responded to this by saying, yes, she is, though much hurt and confused. Yeah, it's like, I'm here, but I'm unwell. Like, am I here? I don't know. And luckily, she didn't have any broken bones, but the thrashing and force of the fall had left a lot of pain in her shoulders and her

neck, and she also had a severe gash on her scalp. Following that day, she was brought to a home or a hospital, I'm not really sure or which, but she was sent somewhere where, where there was going to be a doctor. And he tended to her and forbade any visitors. He's like, I know you just did this crazy stunt. I know you want to talk to people, but you can't have anyone around. Meanwhile, while she's recovering, witnesses wrote down statements to the newspapers, confirming that Annie had successfully barreled down Horseshoe Falls and made history because some people

were skeptical. So the people who picked her up and witnessed it were like, hey, no, I saw this happen. And including in these witnesses was Miguel's B. Butler. who was the mayor of Niagara Falls at the time. And also in that was John Ross, the engineer, the maid of the mist, who had helped pull her out. Annie took a couple of days to recover. And while she was in bed, she received a letter from an unknown man impressed by her achievement and proposed a marriage to her, which she was like, I just did this crazy fee.

I have no. Like, she is not interested in marriage at all. Basically, all these men, she's like, get away from me. So she declines the offer and is like, get away from me. I don't need you. When she was released, she was invited to attend the Pan American exposition in New York City, where she agreed to go and displayed her barrel and brought the cat who had gone over the falls as well. She posed for photo ops and signed her autograph for interested fans who attended.

Not everyone was impressed by this major feat that she had just accomplished. Martha Wagonfure, who had accomplished barreling the World Pool Rapids just days before, and who I had mentioned before, was quoted in the Niagara Falls Gazette saying, This woman, Mrs. Taylor, I see by the papers, went over the horseshoe falls. Now everyone knows there ain't much in going over horseshoe falls. They ain't very dangerous. Of course, no one could go over Niagara Falls. The real falls are 270 feet high.

And it's most likely that if any went over in a barrel, the barrel is going clean to the bottom and never coming up. Or else be smashed to pieces. Miss Taylor never went through the whirlpool like I did. And everyone knows that's the worst trip there is. I'm the second one who has gone through the whirlpool and lived to tell the story. So she's just like it sounds like she doesn't really believe she did it and is also like what she did isn't dangerous. Like what I do is dangerous.

Sounds a little bitter a bit. Yeah. Yeah. I agree. We're girls girls here. We pump each other up. Yeah. Lift each other up.

What are you doing? Yeah. What are you doing, Martha? But she did face some scrutiny and that was part of it. But she didn't really pay any attention to it. She was still focused on trying to make money. and her plan to make money worked at first. For the expo, she was paid $200, which is equivalent to just under $7,500 today.

She was then paid another $200 for each appearances in Michigan and Ohio, where she brought her barrel and the cat. And overall, people weren't as interested as she expected, and people weren't paying as much for her appearances. It was kind of like she went to these things. They went okay, but not what she was expecting. When it wasn't as successful as both her and her manager who was setting these things up believed it would be, her manager disappeared with all of her earnings and the prize barrel that went over the falls.

Along with that, some reports state that he hired a younger and very attractive woman to pose as the woman who went over the falls and he traveled around to expositions making money off of her instead. What a skeez ball. Such a skis. Annie, of course, was really upset. This was her livelihood. hood that she was trying to make. So she spent a lot of her savings that she had hiring a private investigator to get her barrel back so she could go and be like, no, it's me. Look, I have the barrel kind of thing. But it proved to be pretty fruitless. They were able to find the barrel in Chicago very briefly, but just after they found it, it disappeared. And actually from all accounts that

I've been able to read since that no one knows where the barrel is today. Oh, what a find. that would be. Yeah. Imagine it's just like sitting in some antique shop somewhere. An antique shop or someone's attic, you know, like just kind of, you don't even know what it is. Maybe you inherited that house and from a family member and you're like, I don't even get, I wouldn't know what that is. You don't know her story. It's someone's, it's in someone's bar right now. You know how people do like the barrel tables or the barrel bar stools? It's just sitting there. It's painted white. Oh. Let's stop painting antique things, please. Also, just a side note. Please stop. Especially white or gray. Let's not. We're over that, right? We're over. We're over that. Please, everyone. I have

off track, but I have an a frame and it's all really beautiful pine wood and a lot of people. And even in me for a moment, for a hot moment, I debated painting the walls white. And after like looking at this beautiful wood for so long, I'm like, I can't. I can't do that. Yeah. Although some places it looks really nice, but I don't, my support beams would not look good with white, which is why I always. I always. also have decided I can't do it. It's also not a 1895 piece of furniture or something like that. You know, what people are, you know, it's like, it's like, it's not an antique. Yeah. But I appreciate you keeping the natural facade. And I will say some people do it and it looks amazing. But my place, it just wouldn't work. But I agree. Like, stop painting things. But so she hires this person. They find the barrel briefly. It disappears. So instead of continuing to look for it and spend all her money, eventually has a replica of the barrel made, and she spent her days sitting outside a restaurant on the American side of Niagara Falls with the replica selling postcards and her autobiography

to tourists who were interested. And this certainly didn't provide the future that she had hoped for. In fact, she was barely scraping by doing this. She struggled in poverty for years, and in March, 1921, at the age of 82, she entered herself into the Niagara County Poor House, and this was an establishment, and that's what it was called. It was called the poor house. It was an establishment for people who did not have the means to support themselves. Her health was failing at the time. She was losing her eyesight, which made it just more difficult for her to care for herself. And after just a month at the facility on April 29th, 1921, Annie passed away. A funeral was had for her on May 5th, where less than 50 people attended. Coincidentally, on that same day, a motion

Picture Company was filming for a movie project the day of her funeral and sent canoes carrying dummies over the falls just before her ceremony. Oh, what a send-off. Yeah, I don't think it was for her. No, I know, but just a universal thing. It happened. Yeah. And following that, she was buried at the Oakwood Cemetery, which is a cemetery where many famous Niagara Falls Daredevils are buried to this day. And she was buried next to her friend and fellow daredevil Carlisle Graham, who I had mentioned was there to pick her up. And he actually, I didn't read super far into this, but he was like this big daredevil and he died of a cold. So she ends up buried next to him, but I don't know the whole story surrounding that. Wow. He. Yeah. And that's my story of Annie Edson Taylor. Wow. I mean, kind of a sad and obviously

things didn't go the way she had hoped and people took advantage of her and She risked her life and it's, you know, obviously didn't turn out the way she had planned, but at least she survived. She was one of the first to do it. And it seems like she went about it in a, she at least tried to put in a lot of thought and effort into it, like the mechanics of it. And instead of just being like, I'm going to get into a barrel and see what happens, you know, like she was like, well, let's see if there's a smart way to do this.

But it's cool that you did this story now because if you're like super into the Niagara Falls, and you want to know more. Our friends, Sabrina and Corinne of Two Girls One Ghosts podcast, did at this point probably about a month ago by the time this releases a monthish ago. It's episode 277. And they do the Niagara Falls, but in a different way that Cassie did, they do the paranormal side because like Cassie mentioned, there's been over 5,000 deaths. So Sabrina and Corinne kind of go into the paranormal, haunted, spooky side of.

Yeah. So you kind of get both of, you get the best of both. This wasn't planned either. No, no. Yeah. It's not like a... We're on the same wavelength here. And yeah, so if you want the best of both worlds where you get the stunts and you get the

paranormal, go check out two girls, one goes, because they're really cool and they have a lot of very interesting things to say about Niagara Falls. Yeah. But good job. That's cool. I've seen the picture, that like famous picture of her in the barrel, which now I don't know, was that the replica? No, that's the one that you're talking about.

If you look really close, there's a cat sitting on top of it. Okay. Okay. So that it was the true barrel. The true one, yeah. Cool. Well, thanks for covering. I know it's a little bit of a National Park stretch, but that's fine. Yeah, that's fine. There's a historic site there or whatever. Or whatever. Yeah. It's there. Okay. And then I also, with Annie, that she passed away without money and without fame and recognition, I will say she's one of the most remembered people in the falls now. So spreading her story. and keeping her alive, I feel like is kind of a way to do her justice of, you know, she didn't get the recognition that she deserved during her life, but let's give it to her now. Cool. Well, good on you, Annie, and you had some cool one-liners. But she said, I'd rather be without brains than money. Or what? Did she say? I'd rather be without money. Or I'd rather, yeah, I'd rather be without brains than money, like, blow away. That's a hill to die on for sure.

But cool. Well, thanks for sharing. Thank you everyone for listening and being a part of our community. We appreciate you. And we will see you next week. Until then, enjoy the view. But watch you're back. Bye, everyone.

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