Your Guide to Niagara Falls!

The History of the Falls... and the Region

The first European to see Niagara Falls was Father Louis Hennepin in 1678. It was around this time that the French erected a stockade where the Niagara River emptied into Lake Ontario. The stockade (later called Fort Niagara) was built alongside an Indian town called Ongniaahra, where the name 'Niagara' comes from.

While the French colonized the area known today as Western New York, the British colonized the Canadian side of the Niagara River. The British took over the lands of New France in 1759, and by 1796 it turned over the eastern Niagara Frontier to the United States as part of Jay's Treaty. During the War of 1812, the British recaptured Fort Niagara, and burned the nearby city of Buffalo. In 1815, the present day border was adopted when the British returned its captured lands.

The region experienced tremendous growth after the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825. The world's longest canal connected Buffalo and Lake Erie with the Atlantic Ocean. Trade and commerce was soon flourishing in Buffalo, the city of Niagara Falls, and surrounding towns as nearly all trade between the Great Lakes and Europe and the Eastern U.S. passed through Buffalo.

For over two hundered years, Niagara Falls has been considered a romantic vacation spot.  The first recorded honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls was in 1802 by Joseph Aliston and Theodosia Burr, daughter of US Vice-President Aaron Burr.  Napoleon's brother, Jerome Buonaparte, also honeymooned at the Falls.  With the opening of the Erie Canal and the expansion of the railroad, more and more couples began to make the honeymoon trip to Niagara Falls.

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