The Schooner Michigan

In 1827 several local hotel merchants wishing to publicize their establishments concocted a scheme where they would load an old boat with a menagerie of animals, only to set it loose above the falls and watch as the poor creatures would almost certainly perish in the raging waters.

This event drew scores of onlookers. It is said that over 10,000 people converged on the banks of the falls that day. The event was well publicized on both the American and Canadian side. Aboard the schooner animals such as a flock of geese, a black bear and a fox were loaded on the boat for the journey.

Newspapers carried articles alerting tourists and area residents with such headlines as...."The pirate ship Michigan with a cargo of ferocious wild animals will pass the great rapids and falls of Niagara on the 8th of September 1827 at exactly 6 o’clock.”

Such advertising brought out scores of onlookers that day. When the schooner was actually set adrift many of the animals that were not tethered down managed to escape and seek refuge on the banks of the river, to the dismay of many in the crowd that day.

One of the spectators in the crowd that day was Sam Patch. Sam Patch would become Niagara’s very first daredevil.