Tag: Niagara dry

Niagara Fell – 1848 by John Newmark

 

newmark
John Newmark
Courtesy of the author.

In 1848, on a day in March
Huge chunks of ice
Pierced Niagara’s head.
Downstream, the falls dried up.

Residents looked down –
The mighty thunder, silenced –
Then up to the sky, fearful.
News traveled slowly.

The churches were filled
As the fish died.
Tourists came from far
To walk across the bed.

When the ice dam cleared
Some must have felt foolish,
While others just waited
For their god’s next missive.

©2010 by John Newmark

Source: Medium January 27, 2023

Also published in John Newmark. Why We Should Not Read W.H. Auden. Lulu.com, 2014

John Newmark lives in St. Louis, Missouri with his wife and two children. An avid family historian, his 5th great grandfather, McGregory Vanevery, was one of the original settlers of Niagara, Ontario. He enjoys writing poetry about his ancestors, and the places they lived. Visit his website.

Read about the day Niagara Falls dried up

Niagara Dry by James McIntyre

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The ice boom on Lake Erie at the mouth of the Niagara River, designed to stop ice from stopping the flow of water in the Niagara River. Photo by Dr. Frank Seglenieks

It happened once in early spring,
‡‡While there did float great thick ice cakes,
That then a gale did quickly bring
‡‡Them all down from the upper lakes.

And from Buffalo to Lake Erie,
‡‡Across the entrance to river,
It was a scene of icebergs dreary,
‡‡Those who saw will remember ever.

Then gale blew up lake and river,
‡‡And left Niagara almost dry,
This a lady did discover
‡‡As above the Falls she cast her eye.

Such scene it had been witnessed never,
‡‡Since Israelites crossed the Red Sea,
When they had resolved forever
‡‡From Pharaoh’s bondage to flee.

Lady she resolved to venture,
‡‡Proudly carrying British flag,
Erecting it in river’s centre
‡‡In crevice of a rocky crag.

It seems like a romance by Bulwer,
‡‡How she captured Niagara,
But it was seen by Bishop Fuller,
‡‡Who did at sight of flag hurrah.

Ten thousand years may die away
‡‡Before another dry can tread,
In bottom of Niagara,
‡‡For she doth jealous guard her bed.

But ice her entrance did blockade,
‡‡And wind it kept the waters back,
So that a child could almost wade
‡‡Across the brink of cataract.

Source: McIntyre, James. Poems of James McIntyre.  Ingersoll: The Chronicle, 1889.

Biography of James McIntyre in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

Read When Niagara Falls Ran Dry on the Niagara Falls Museums’ website