Inventing Niagara: Beauty, Power, and LiesAmericans call Niagara Falls a natural wonder, but the Falls aren't very natural anymore. In fact, they are a study in artifice. Water diverted, riverbed reshaped, brink stabilized and landscape redesigned, the Falls are more a monument to man's meddling than to nature's strength. Held up as an example of something real, they are hemmed in with fakery -- waxworks, haunted houses, IMAX films and ersatz Indian tales. A symbol of American manifest destiny, they are shared politely with Canada. Emblem of nature's power, they are completely human-controlled. Archetype of natural beauty, they belie an ugly environmental legacy still bubbling up from below. On every level, Niagara Falls is a monument to how America falsifies nature, reshaping its contours and redirecting its force while claiming to submit to its will. Combining history, reportage and personal narrative, Inventing Niagara traces Niagara's journey from sublime icon to engineering marvel to camp spectacle. Along the way, Ginger Strand uncovers the hidden history of America's waterfall: the Mohawk chief who wrested the Falls from his adopted tribe, the revered town father who secretly assisted slave catchers, the wartime workers who unknowingly helped build the Bomb and the building contractor who bought and sold a pharaoh. With an uncanny ability to zero in on the buried truth, Strand introduces us to underwater dams, freaks of nature, mythical maidens and 280,000 radioactive mice buried at Niagara. From LaSalle to Lincoln to Los Alamos, Mohawks to Marilyn, Niagara's story is America's story, a tale of dreams founded on the mastery of nature. At a time of increasing environmental crisis, Inventing Niagara shows us how understanding the cultural history of nature might help us rethink our place in it today. |
Contents
| 1 | |
Two The Eighth Wonder of the World | 45 |
Three Skipper the TwoLegged Dog | 76 |
Four The Other Side of Jordan | 105 |
Five Free Niagara | 136 |
Six King of Power Queen of Beauty | 158 |
Seven Sentiment in Liquid Form | 198 |
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American Falls Army Corps Barnett beauty began Billy Blondin bomb bridge brink Buffalo building built called Canada Canadian side casino chemical collection Corps of Engineers culture declared downtown electricity Erie factories Frederick Law Olmsted Free Niagara French fugitives giant Goat Island guidebooks Haudenosaunee head honeymoon Horseshoe Falls human Indian industry Iroquois Lake land landfill landscape Linde look Love Canal Maid man’s Manhattan Manhattan Project Marilyn Maureen miles Mist mummies nation Native American nature’s Niag Niagara County Niagara Falls Niagara Falls Museum Niagara region Niagara Reservation Niagara River nuclear Olmsted Olmsted’s Ontario Pawel Peter Porter Power Authority power plant Red Hat Society Robert Moses Parkway Rock Salle says Seneca souvenir story tells there’s things tion tourists town turned Tuscaroras Underground Railroad uranium visitors walk waste waterfall what’s workers wrote York York’s