Challenging the Whirlpool Rapids

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Whirlpool Rapids became a favored place for daredevils to test themselves by swimming, riding in barrels, and navigating boats through the raging waters, and some lost their lives. In 1861, the famous sightseeing boat Maid of the Mist II was sold to a Montreal company on condition that it be delivered to Lake Ontario, and Captain Joel Robinson and his crew took it through the Whirlpool Rapids to the docks at Queenston, Ontario, making the first planned trip through these rapids. Captain Matthew Webb, the first person known to swim across the English Channel, died in 1883 while attempting to swim the Whirlpool Rapids. In 1886, Carlisle D. Graham became the first person to ride through the Whirlpool Rapids in a barrel, and he repeated the feat four more times, once with his head outside the barrel, which left him partially deaf from the pounding waves. Martha E. Wagenfuhrer, known as the Maid of the Niagara Falls Rapids, became the first woman to conquer the Whirlpool Rapids alone in a barrel on September 6, 1901, the same day President McKinley rode through the gorge on the trolley line.

Niagara Falls, New York · United States