Have You Ever Noticed That Ship Stuck In The Niagara River?

Western New York and Southern Ontario offer a wide range of great activities all year long. Regardless of the season, Upstate New York and along the Golden Horseshoe have something for everyone.

One of our favorite times of year around here has to be summer. When the warm weather blows in, we all come outside to enjoy everything the region offers. Those travels often take us to one of the world's wonders that sits right in our backyard.

More than 20 million people travel to Niagara Falls every year. Those folks come from far and wide to marvel and watch more than 675,000 gallons of water fall more than 320 feet per second over the falls.

The sheer power of the waterfalls is breathtaking, and if you've never seen Niagara Falls in person, I highly suggest you plan to see it as soon as possible.

On my last trip to Niagara Falls, I was driving down the Niagara River Parkway when I saw something out of the corner of my eye that I had never noticed before. Sitting in the middle of the Niagara River, just 1,700 feet from the falls, is a boat.

That boat, an iron scow barge, apparently has been there for a while. According to Niagara Parks in Ontario, it's been stuck there since it crashed on August 6, 1918.

That dumping scow was being pulled by a tug boat, the Hassayampa, when its tow rope broke loose and drifted into the falls' rapids. Two men, Gustav F. Lofberg and James H. Harris, were trapped on the scow and faced certain death if they weren't rescued. Officers from the Niagara Parks police, the police and fire departments in Niagara Falls, the U.S. Coast Guard, and a WWI veteran, William ‘Red’ Hill Sr., all teamed together to rescue the two men. It took 17 hours to get the men to safety, and while they were saved, it was too dangerous to attempt to recover the boat.

And there the scow has sat for more than 100 years.

In 2019, remnants of Tropical Storm Olga hit the region and dislodged the boat, shifting its position close to the falls by another 150 feet. Since then, the scow has suffered even more damage from the weather and rough waters of the Niagara River.

The scow now sits on its side and looks broken into several pieces.