Ausable Chasm’s scenic boat tour, begun in 1873 and enjoyed by millions, used wooden boats of this type until 1996 for rides through the navigable waters of the Chasm’s lower half, starting at Table Rock about 1 mile down the Chasm. Visitors walked the first half of the 2-mile-long Chasm and then boarded these boats, which boatmen piloted between towering sandstone walls and through mild rapids. Floods on the Ausable River in January and November 1996 led to the end of the wooden boats after November floodwaters, reaching 60 feet high, destroyed the motorized cable system that pulled the boats back upriver to Table Rock after each trip. In 1997, the boat ride became a raft ride, now called the Float Tour.