Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly-formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean. 

In the early 1900s it became somewhat of a fad to try to go over Niagara Falls safely. Some people made it and some didn’t. This Greek chef made it over Niagara Falls in one piece on July 7, 1930, but he suffocated in the barrel. Upon impact, his barrel was stuck behind a curtain of water and could not be recovered for 18 hours.

BODY OF FALLS VICTIM FOUND IN OAK BARREL

Buffalo Chef Suffocated In Attempt To Naviagate Horseshoe Falls

(transcribed from The Tuscaloosa News July 7, 1930)

Niagara Falls, Ont. July 7—(AP)—The body of George Stathakis, Buffalo Creek Chef, who suffocated in a barrel in which he shot the Horseshoe Falls, was at an undertaker’s today awaiting claimants.

Niagara Falls Horseshoe Falls May 24, 1849 (Library of Congress)

Sealed in the cask

In a sealed cask of oak reinforced with steel he took the plunge Saturday afternoon. He carried oxygen sufficient for three hours. The cask was removed some 16 hours later, a bit battered and leaky, Stathakis was still strapped to a mattress he designed as a buffer. An old turtle—Sacred, he called it—which he carried with him was alive. No injuries were apparent.

Coroner W. W. Thompson expressed the belief that Stathakis had lived six hours.

Stathakis, who called himself a philosopher and wrote a treatise on “the mysterious veil of humanity,” took along paper and pencil to record his sensations, but did no writing in the barrel.

Niagara Falls, New York May 2006 by photographer Carol Highsmith (Library of Congress)  The Niagara Falls are voluminous waterfalls on the Niagara River, straddling the international border between the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of New York. Niagara Falls were formed when glaciers receded at the end of the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age), and water from the newly-formed Great Lakes carved a path through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the Atlantic Ocean.

TAPESTRY OF LOVE SERIES: Three Books in One Kindle Edition

REVIEWS:

The exhilarating action & subplots keep the reader in constant anticipation. It is almost impossible to put the book down until completion,Dr. Don P. Brandon, Retired Professor, Anderson University, Anderson, Indiana

This is the first book I have read that puts a personal touch to some seemingly real people in factual events.Ladyhawk

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A picture of love and history rolled into one. A step back in time that pulls you in and makes you a part of the family and their world.Ken Flessas

Each book’s writing gets stronger, characters become real, the struggles and sorrows that laid the foundation for this country.Addictedtobooks

Not only is the story entertaining, it opens the eastern shore of the early Virginia Colony to the reader as a picture book….I know this story will touch many peoples’ hearts. B. Thomas