The lower Niagara River rarely freezes over in all places, much running water being left in evidence and as a rule the ice which has anywhere been formed during the winter goes out into the lake in the spring without any trouble. There are records of two great "Ice Jams" which had happened during the previous history of the river. The earliest of these was in 1825. During this winter the steamer Queenston was under construction in the ravine on the Canadian side which opens up from the river just below the Queenston dock. In the spring the preparations were being made ready for the launching when an exceptional ice jam suddenly formed, causing the waters of the river to rise. The pressure of the floes which were now carried by the water up against the steamer became so great and dangerous that it was necessary to block her up and by extending the ways inland to move her further back into the gully, from here, after the waters had subsided, she was successfully launched.
The ICE JAM. 1906, at Lewiston. [page 192]
The ICE JAM. 1906, at Niagara-on-Lake. [page 193]
Another instance was in 1883, when the waters and ice rose exceptionally, but beyond sweeping the sheds off the Lewiston docks no exceptional damage was done.
This latest ice jam of 1908-09, was according to past records, and the traditions of the oldest inhabitants, the worst that had ever been experienced. The winter had been severe and much ice had formed in Lake Erie and on the upper river. This was brought down in successive rushes in the spring during alternating frosts and thaws, so that, the river between Lewiston and the mouth had become jammed from bank to bank with huge floes of ice, heaving and heaping up on one another, and binding together with serracs, and crevasses much like the ice river of an Avalanche. As the successive ice runs came down they were driven under the floes until at length the masses grounded on the shallows at the mouths below Niagara-on-the-Lake.
The river being now blocked up, the waters gradually rose fully twenty feet higher than usual bringing the ice floes with them. With the exception of a few places where small sections of water could be seen, the whole Rapids from the Whirlpool to the outlet of the Gorge at Lewiston was packed with ice and the rapids eliminated, a condition never previously known. As the spring thaws came, the ice mounds, being unable to get exit below, mounted still higher with mighty heavings and struggles, rounding up in the centre of the river, as had been noticed to some extent in 1883, and pushing and piling up on the banks but not making any progress down the river, until it became evident that Nature was unable to break the barrier and immense injury was likely to occur.
At that juncture the Engineer Corps of the United States Regular Army, at Buffalo, initiated a series of explosions of dynamite, by electric mines, in the main blockade down near the river mouth opposite Fort Niagara. After several days of very difficult and dangerous work, as much as 4,000 lbs. of dynamite being exploded at one time, the blockade was broken, the seven miles of ice began to move in alternate rushes and haltings, until at length the river was clear.