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Going to Niagara Falls, very few people haven’t heard of this world famous experience.. It has been featured in numerous films – including, to mention just one – Bruce Almighty featuring Jim Carrey.
The Maid of the Mist is one of the oldest attractions in North America, and with so much history it’s difficult to take it all in!
Boats leave daily every 15 minutes from the Canadian (and the United States) Landings from April to October and take 30 minutes to boldly venture up to the foot of the falls. If you wanted to get close to the Falls – there really is no better way than to do it like this!

These amazing little boats power themselves up the river, allowing people to see the gorge from a completely different perspective – people often say how it makes them feel so small, being able to look up at the falls, rather than down on it like the usual views from the cliffs above

The Maid of the Mist opened in 1846 as a Ferry service between America and Canada and was the first steam boat service across the Niagara, having previously always been rowing boat services! The building of the Suspension bridge in 1848 however across the gorge had huge implications on the company, and the Maid of the Mist altered its focus from service to tourism, and in 1852 had its second Maid of the Mist built in 1854.
In 1861 Financial difficulties struck the Maid of the mist.. and the owner was forced to sell it to a Montreal company – though doing so meant the Maid had to sail back up the river to lake Ontario.. Which would have been fine if the river had been as calm as the river Trent.. however – the Niagara River is known throughout the world to have the wildest river rapids in the world.. with whirlpools and other hazards. It fell to a daring Captain Joel B Robinson and two crewmen James McIntyre and James H Jones to do this task, as simply no one else would dare to take this task on! This journey would come to be a legend, with the ship being battered and beaten, loosing its smoke stack, even appearing to be swallowed whole by the white water, and everyone feared lost… though after a few moments it emerged defiant from the torrents of water – narrowly missing the whirlpool vortex – smashing through the rapids, and finally coming to port in Queenston.. the first and only time a ship has ever docked from that journey in that direction.
The Niagara was without a Maid of the Mist until 1885, when a new ship was built and launched in June. This was the boat which ventured closer to the falls than any had dared go before – and the trips were now so successful that a second Maid was built once again in 1892 although as we know – they were really the third and fourth ships to bare the name!
From this point on the Maid of the mist has been a regular and popular attraction for tourists visiting Niagara, the older fleet have been replaced with more modern boats, and the fleet has massively increased in size – allowing more passengers to enjoy this amazing trip every day.

Anyone who ever rides this attraction remembers it for the rest of their lives – so it really is the must see attraction when you’re in Niagara Falls. . . So now you know all about it, you can go and experiance it!

It’s so easy to find the entrance. If we take the edge of the Horse shoe falls as a point of referance, if you walk along the gorge with the river on your right, after walking past the gift shops and along the side of the road, the admission stand is on your right!

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 10:00 am and is filed under Niagara Falls, Niagara, ON, Ontario. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.