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The first humans arrived in Niagara Region almost 12,000 years ago, just in
time to witness the birth of the Falls. The land was different then, consisting
of tundra and spruce forest. During this time (the Palaeo-Indian Period, which
lasted until 9,000 years ago), Niagara was inhabited by the Clovis people. These
nomadic hunters likely camped along the old Lake Erie shoreline, living in
simple, tiny dwellings. They left little to mark their tenure except chipped
stones. These large, fluted projectile points were likely to fell the caribou,
mastodons, moose and elk that roamed the land.
By 9,500 years ago a deciduous forest apparently covered southernmost Ontario.
This forest supported the hunter-gatherers of the Archaic Period (9,000 to 3,000
years ago) with a diet of deer, moose, fish and plants. Small groups hunted in
the winter, feeding on nuts and animals attracted to the forest. Larger groups
came together during the summer, setting up fishing camps at the mouths of
rivers and along lakeshores.
The Woodland Period lasted from 3,000 to 300 years ago, culminating in the peak
of Iroquois culture in southern Ontario. Corn, bean and squash agriculture
provided the main sources of food. With their bellies full, the Iroquois had
time for other pursuits and the population boomed. Small palisaded villages were
built, with nuclear or extended families occupying individual longhouses. During
this period, burial rituals and ceramics were introduced to Ontario. Society
became more complex with a political system based on extended kinship and
inter-village alliances.
When the European explorers and missionaries arrived at the beginning of the 17
th Century, the Iroquoian villages were under the direction of various chiefs
elected from the major clans. In turn, these villages were allied within
powerful tribal confederacies.
Unfortunately, inter-tribal warfare with the Five Nations Iroquois of New York
State, made worse by the intrusion of the Europeans, dispersed the three Ontario
confederacies, the Huron, the Petun and the Neutral. Niagara ceased to be the
territory of those who lived in harmony with nature. Still, this fascinating
period of native occupation cries out for interpretation and study. Since human
settlement requires drinking water, sites within 150 metres of rivers and
lakeshores have the greatest archaeological potential. Palaeo-Indian sites in
Niagara would most likely be associated with the series of relic beach ridges
that once formed the shore of early Lake Erie.
In May 1535, Jacques Cartier left France to explore the New World. Although he
never saw Niagara Falls, the Indians he met along the St.Lawrence River told him
about it. Samuel de Champlain visited Canada in 1608. He, too, heard stories of
the mighty cataract, but never visited it. 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 Iroquios name for the river- Onguiaahra, meaning "the
Strait". "Niagara" is a simplification of the original.
In 1651, during the fur- trade rivalry between the Huron and Iroquois that was
first precipitated by the French, the Iroquois wiped out the Neutrals. Until the
American Revolution, they managed to keep white settlers out of Niagara almost
completely.
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 metres, more than three times what it really
is.
In 1812, United States President James Madison declared war on Canada. Artifacts
from that war dot the riverside, as do monuments erected later, such as the one
to Sir Isaac Brock. Recently, the skeletons of members of the U.S. Army were
found near Old Fort Erie.
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.
In the 1820's, a stairway was built down the bank at Table Rock and the first
ferry service across the lower River began. By 1827, a paved road had been built
up from the ferry landing to the top of the bank on the Canadian side. This site
became the prime location for hotel development and the Clifton was built there,
after which the Clifton Hill is named.
Niagara has perhaps the most complex transportation history of any area in North
America. The first Welland Canal was completed in 1829. Between 1849 and 1962,
thirteen bridges were constructed across the Niagara River Gorge. Four of them
remain.
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.
Tourism travel to the Falls began in the 1820s and within 50 years it had
increased ten-fold to become the area's dominant industry.
After World War 1, automobile touring became popular. As a response, attractions
and accommodations sprang up in strip developments, much of which still
survives.
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