Etienne Brule, the First European to See Lakes Ontario, Erie Huron and Superior, May Also

A SHORT HISTORY OF NIAGARA FALLS

Etienne Brule, the first European to see Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Superior, may also have been the first to behold the Falls, in 1615. That same year, the Recollet missionary explorers arrived in Ontario. They were followed a decade later by the Jesuits. It was a Jesuit father, Gabriel Lalemant, who first recorded the Iroquois name for the river- Onguiaahra, meaning "the Strait". "Niagara" is a simplification of the original.

In December 1678, Recollet priest Louis Hennepin visited Niagara Falls. Nineteen years later, he published the first engraving of the Falls in his book Nouvelle Decouverte. The Falls obviously made a great impression of Hennepin, for he estimated their height to be 183 meters, more than three times what it really is.

In 1812, by request of President James Madison, the United States congress declared war on Canada.

On the night of Oct. 13, 1812 the American invaders crossed the river and captured the village of Queenston. Scaling a nearby path, the Americans gained control of the surrounding heights and captured a small gun battery that contained a cannon and commanded the area.

Maj.-Gen. Issac Brock who was 42 in 1812 led a detachment of British soldiers, York volunteers and Indians to retake the battery. In the evening charge, Brock was felled by a sharpshooter and died immediately. With the fall of Brock the charge was resumed by Maj.-Gen. Roger Hale Shaffe and the battery was retaken.

Twelve years after the death of Brock a 130 foot stone monument was erected in his honor on the heights near where he was felled. His remains were re-buried after completion.

Following the War of 1812, the region began the slow process of rebuilding itself. Queenston became a bustling community, but Chippawa was the big centre, with distilleries and factories.

The roadway between Niagara-on –the Lake and Chippawa was the first designated King's Highway. The first stage coach in Upper Canada operated on this roadway between the late 1700s and 1896. The first railroad in Upper Canada opened in 1841 with horse-drawn carriages running between Chippawa and Queenston. In 1854 it was converted to steam and relocated to serve what was to become the Town of Niagara Falls.

In 1855, John August Roebling, the designer of the Brooklyn Bridge, built the Niagara Railway Suspension Bridge, the first bridge of its type in the world. Between the late 1700s and the middle 1800s, boats were the main way to get to Niagara Falls. By 1896, three boats plied the route between Toronto and Queenston.

One of the first electrified street car services was provided in Niagara, and in 1893 the Queenston/Chippawa Railway carried boat passengers from Queenston to Table Rock and beyond. In 1902, a railway was constructed across the Queenston Suspension Bridge. Later it was extended along the lower Gorge on the American side of the River, connecting back into Canada at the Upper Arch Bridge. This transit line, the Great Gorge Route, continued in service until the Depression. The use of boats declined as tourists increasingly chose to visit Niagara by automobile, bus or train.