The History of the Niagara Falls Old Scow + Now & Then Comparisons

[Music] on August 16 1918 two men were working on a sand bar being towed in the upper Niagara River the tugboat that was doing the towing got stuck on a sandbar and in the efforts to free it the towline snapped and the black steel scow began drifting downstream other tugboats gave chase but they were not able to throw it the crew aligned the men on board Gustave loft Berg and James Harris both of Buffalo New York dropped the scows six ton anchor but the chain broke and the barges drifting towards the Thundering Niagara Falls continued the barge ran aground on a shoal 2,500 feet from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls the five power stations along the Niagara River all ran their turbines at full speed to keep the river levels as low as possible while the Niagara Parks Police Niagara Falls fire and police departments and the US Coast Guard used a cannon lines and a breeches boy to set up a rescue from the roof of the Toronto power plant it was grueling work and the lines shot to the scow kept getting tangled at 3:00 a.m. with the block and tackle twisted half way out the Niagara Falls River man hero and daredevil Red Hills senior volunteered to go out on the breeches boy and untangle them eventually both loft berg and Harris were retrieved safely after more than 18 hours stranded on the barge a local urban legend states that one of the men trapped on the boat came back with white hair from the terror of the rescue since that day in 1918 the scow has sat firm in its position jammed up against rocks pummeled year after year by water ice wind and rain the old iron scow has been a tourist destination for decades and its story has been told by locals time and time again the scow has suffered a great deal of erosion over the years eventually the US facing side of the scow was completely eroded away but the Canadian facing side remained recognizable as a boat up until Halloween 2019 on October 31st 2019 a windstorm flipped the scow over onto its side and blew at about 50 meters closer to the brink of Niagara Falls news of the shifting scow gripped the city of Falls with locals flocking to the scene to see the scout for themselves having grown up in Niagara Falls myself I'm very familiar with the Scout and a history it came as no surprise to me that the citizens of Niagara Falls were so enthralled by this new turn of events quickly global news media started reporting on the shift of the scow and every major news outlet reported on this event Good Morning America even sent a crew to the city to do a live report from the scene local photographers were all trying to get photos from the ground level to show just how much the Scout has shifted and how different it looks one woman pulled up an aerial photo that I had taken in 2015 of the scowl taken from a helicopter this images was one of the clearest photos in recent history to show the erosion of the US facing side of the scow local businessman Jay Robitaille owner of gig guy's production and Event Services in Niagara Falls Ontario sent me a message with my photo and asked if I would be interested in working with his company to capture the first aerial images of the scow in its new position also to do a comparison of the scouts position from the sky and tell the story of the Scout with his new chapter Jay and I met at Niagara helicopter tours on a cool fall morning where the temperature on the ground was 5 degrees Celsius or 41 degrees Fahrenheit arrangements had been made for a special helicopter tour with both doors being open allowing for us the best possible vantage point of the iron scow our pilot from Niagara helicopters Ben would take us as low as 1,900 feet above the scow and he would hover so he could see the iron scow from the best possible the wind was sharp at 1900 feet Jay and I safely attached into the helicopter but hanging out as far as we safely could from the open doors snapped photos and took video on the icy cold helicopter ride knowing we only have one shot at this we had to fight back the urge to warm up our hands and keep shooting until the pilot Ben told us it's time to head back looking through the photos I quickly realized that what we're seeing from the shore or the ground level is actually the bottom of the scale from this aerial photo you can see the front angle at the top right hand corner this used to be visible from the shore as the front side of the scow the rear of the scow has actually now almost broken right off and lies at a different angle from the rest of the scow it took some time to line the photos up properly as the angles and the height were not an exact match I used specific landmarks in the 2015 and 2019 photos specifically a break-in Gull Island and a line where the Niagara River drops leaving a jagged edge to line up both photos watch now as I show you the steps taken to line up the photos from 2015 and 2019 [Music] from the aerial view it appears that during the windstorm the old iron scow actually rolled and cracked in two places pivoted and moved down the river slightly to its new resting place [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] we'll the old iron Scouse sit in place for another 100 years or will it continue to rust break apart and take the plunge over the Horseshoe Falls only time will tell [Music] thanks very much to Jay Robitaille and gig guys production & Event Services in Niagara Falls for supporting this initiative and wanting to go where no national news outlet went and wanted to see an actual aerial comparison on the old scow and the first-ever new footage of a piece of Niagara Falls history [Music] you [Music]