In 1969 the American Army Corps of engineers did something incredible, they drained Niagara
Falls.
When the water slowed to a trickle, and the rocks that had been hidden underwater for
thousands of years could be seen, the engineers found something both shocking and horrifying.
Lying on the riverbed were millions of coins.
As they explored the exposed bedrock further, they stumbled across human remains.
Now engineers want to drain the falls once again and what they might find could shock
the world.
In the coming years, the waters on the American side of Niagra Falls will be diverted to the
Canadian side, and the rock bed will be exposed.
In 1969 researchers needed to explore the riverbed and examine the walls of the river
to identify points of erosion and better understand the rock composition of the area.
This time around, engineers are going to take the opportunity of a drained Niagra Falls
to repair bridges that have been in use for over a century.
There are two parts to this story.
The first has to do with the amazing feat of engineering used to drain a waterfall that
dumps thousands of gallons of water every second into the river below.
The second has to do with the mysterious objects found under the water of Niagara Falls once
it had been drained.
The official term for this process is dewatering.
The first and only time thus far that Niagara Falls has been dewatered was on June 13, 1969,
a month before Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
People flocked to Niagra Falls from around the country to see the naked riverbed.
To be clear, there are three main waterfalls in the area.
The largest sits on the Canadian side of the border and is known as Horseshoe Falls.
This part of Niagra Falls has never been dewatered and probably never will be as it unleashes
an enormous amount of water every second.
Here the water drops 165 feet and accounts for 85% of the river's flow.
The falls on the American side are much smaller and, therefore, easier to divert water from.
These waterfalls are named American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls.
When these two waterfalls were stopped in 1969 the rockfaces stood between 70 and 100
feet tall.
It was this image that thousands of people came to see.
Pictures were snapped, and headlines were made.
The engineers didn’t so much stop the flow of water as divert it.
They built a temporary 600-foot dam across the Niagara River, which diverted 60,000 gallons
of water every second towards Horseshoe Falls.
This temporarily increased the already enormous amount of water flowing over the falls, making
it an even more spectacular sight to behold.
When the water was drained, the engineers were amazed by how many coins were lying on
the riverbed.
They were collected, but records do not indicate where the money actually ended up.
Even more surprising were the two sets of human remains that were recovered during this
time.
One belonged to a man, another to a woman.
Every body from a known accident at the falls had been recovered, so authorities could only
scratch their heads and wonder who these two sets of remains belonged to.
Although, deaths at Niagara Falls were nothing new, especially when people had been making
bad decisions and doing crazy things near the landmark since the 1800s.
On July 19, 1853, Joseph Avery and two other men had been working off the shore of Goat
Island.
The men had been drinking and made some questionable decisions when it came time to return to the
mainland.
Avery and the other two workers hopped into a row boat and started to drunkenly paddle
back to the mainland.
Only moments after pushing off into the turbulent waters, the boat capsized, throwing the men
into the raging river.
Avery watched in horror as his two friends were dragged towards the American Falls and
disappeared over the edge.
Avery was able to grab onto a thicket of tree roots and held on for dear life as his friends
plummeted to their deaths.
Eighteen hours went by before help arrived.
When someone discovered that there was a man hanging onto tree roots in the middle of the
Niagara River, they sent for help.
A rescue team was dispatched and made their way across the river to rescue Avery.
But the current was too strong, and the rescue team couldn’t reach him without being swept
over the side of the falls.
Then someone had an idea.
They tethered a boat to Goat Island and slowly released rope so that they could control their
descent down the river.
They reached Avery, who was desperate to get out of the water by any means necessary.
He was clearly only moments away from losing his grip and going over the falls.
The boat reached Avery, but as he scrambled to climb in, the turbulence caused the entire
vessel to capsize.
Avery was thrown back into the raging water, swept down river, and plunged over the falls.
Even after struggling to survive all night and almost an entire day, Joseph Avery died
on the American side of Niagara Falls.
After his death, the rock that he had clung to was given the name "Avery's Rock.”
But not everyone who goes over the falls dies.
In fact, some people choose to go over Niagara Falls for some pretty crazy reasons.
On October 24, 1901, Annie Edson Taylor became the first person to go over the falls in a
wooden barrel and survive.
The emphasis here is that she was the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel
and live because two days before, Annie sent her cat over the waterfall to see if it would
survive.
The cat lived, which convinced Annie that she would as well.
Annie was a school teacher who was struggling to make ends meet like most teachers.
She came up with a full-proof plan to become famous, which would inevitably make her rich.
On her 63rd birthday, Annie climbed inside a wooden barrel and went over Niagra Falls
while hundreds of people looked on.
The wooden barrel had an air hole drilled into it so that she could still breathe while
inside.
Annie was sealed in, and the barrel was sent down river.
People watched as the barrel bobbed up and down in the swiftly moving water.
Then Annie and the barrel disappeared over the falls.
It landed in the whitewater with a thunk.
When the barrel was recovered, Annie was found alive with a few bumps and bruises but otherwise
physically unharmed.
However, her plan was shattered when she wasn’t swarmed by fans.
Annie received almost no proceeds from her stunt, and when she passed away from natural
causes, her funeral had to be paid for by public donations.
But the fact remains that Annie Edson Taylor was and will always be the first person to
ever survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
This brings us back to the dewatering of Niagara falls.
Joseph Avery was not the last person to be tragically swept over the falls.
And not everyone was as lucky as Annie Edson Taylor when trying daredevil stunts at Niagra
Falls.
Therefore, it wasn’t surprising that when the water was diverted from the American side
of the falls, bodies were found.
The first body belonged to a female.
She had decomposed, and only her bones remained.
The entire research project was halted as investigative teams were brought in to preserve
the remains and identify who they belonged to.
The team removed the skeleton and took it back to the lab for analysis.
The recovery of the remains was a success, but the identification of who they belonged
to was not.
To this day, we still don’t know whose bones were found when the American side of Niagara
Falls was drained.
But this isn’t the most gruesome story to come out of the draining of Niagara Falls
in 1969.
When the water stopped flowing and the research teams began their work, something horrifying
happened.
As researchers and engineers worked in the dried riverbed and people flocked from around
the country to see a dry waterfall, a man walked up to the newly exposed rockface and
fell.
Several witnesses saw the man fall and land somewhere in the rocks below.
Rescue teams were sent out to find the man.
It took several days, but eventually, the body was recovered, and work could once again
resume on the dried riverbed of Niagara Falls.
There were also less gruesome things found when the water was diverted from American
and Bride Veil Falls in 1969.
Millions and millions of coins were uncovered by the research teams and brought out of the
riverbed.
These coins were mainly from the United States and Canada, but other currencies were also
retrieved.
Now that there are plans in place to drain the American side of Niagara Falls once again,
many people are wondering what objects will be uncovered under its waters.
It has been over 50 years since it was last drained, and during that time, we have developed
cell phones, drones, and cameras.
All of these objects will likely be found wedged between the rocks of the Niagara riverbed,
along with more coins.
Although there are no known missing bodies from people who have gone over the falls,
it’s still within the realm of possibility that human remains could be found.
Accidents happen all of the time, and people may have been traveling alone when they disappeared.
Only time will tell if more human remains will need to be exhumed from the riverbed
of Niagara Falls.
And who knows what other objects might be found once the waters of the Niagra cease
to flow.
Now watch “Crazy Unexpected Things That Were Found Inside of People.”
Or check out “Insane & Strange Things Found on Google Maps.”