Goat Island

Goat Island consists of dolostone bedrock covered with glacial deposits that lay under deep lake and river waters for thousands of years until the water level of the Upper Niagara began to drop about 3,500 years ago, eventually exposing the deposits that formed the island. Mist from the falls and fertile soil created a very special forest with the largest variety of shrubs and trees in North America. Native American people regarded the islands and nearby lands by the falls as sacred because they believed the Thunder Being Heno, an important deity, lived behind Horseshoe Falls. By the latter part of the 18th century, the British possessed the island, and settler John Stedman cared for it. To protect his livestock from mainland wolves, he cleared land on the island's upper end, and after a severe winter killed all his animals except one goat, he named it Goat's Island. In 1816, Peter and Augustus Porter, founders of the nearby village of Manchester, later known as Niagara Falls, purchased the island from the State of New York. Respecting its natural beauty, they preserved it as a scenic spot and built only a few structures. The Porter family maintained the island until 1885, when the State of New York purchased it and the other islands above the falls for $525,000 to form part of Niagara Reservation State Park. Frederick Law Olmsted later praised Goat Island's rare beauty and the "exceeding loveliness of the rock foliage," and his original 1887 design ideas primarily shaped the Niagara Reservation.

Niagara Falls, New York · United States