The Niagara Reservation - A Historical Perspective

(Courtesy of the Niagara Frontier State Parks & Recreation Commission)

“Free Niagara!”

Spurred on by that rallying cry, a fiercely dedicated group of 19th century Americans freed Niagara Falls from the clutches of vulgar commercialism, and returned it to a natural state.

Little more than a hundred years ago, the land surrounding Niagara Falls belong to private owners who charged visitors a fee to see the mighty waterfalls. People had to pay to be allowed to look through holes in a fence in order to be able to see Niagara.

Through the efforts of such Americans as landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted and artist Frederick Church, however, the "Free Niagara" movement returned the area around the falls to its natural state – and to the people of the world.

The most surprising thing about the fight to save Niagara is that it needed to be waged at all. When disputes over land in Western New York were resolved after the American Revolution, the State of New York remained with clear title to a strip of land one mile wide along the Niagara River. The strip included all the land on the American side of the great waterfall, and all of the islands in the river overlooking it. The State quickly dispersed this property to private buyers.

Why did New York fail to reserve its title to this priceless portion of land? Few people at the time would have asked such a question. Theirs was an that saw little, if any, sublime in raw and untamed Nature. To 18th and early 19th century Americans, an uncut forest was a challenge – cleared land was the sign of civilization.

Most people who dealt with the Falls saw them either as an obstacle along the way west, or as a matchless resource just waiting to be tapped. The big debate among early State officials was not whether the Falls should be kept in public hands, but rather to which of the competing groups of private citizens the titles to the surrounding lands should be transferred.

It was Augustus Porter who took title to the largest of the islands in the Niagara River and some of the key lots overlooking the Falls. In time, he would build a freight transfer business, erect mills to be powered by Niagara water, and carry out plans to turn his island into a privately-owned tourist attraction. Although today there is a temptation to cast Porter and the industrialists who followed him as villains, it should be noted that his views were shared by large numbers of his contemporaries.

Others took a different view, however. In the first half of the 19th century, there had been a movement among artists to capture the sublime aspects of nature. Frederick Church, of the Hudson River School, was part of the movement. Hundreds of thousands of persons are reported to have stood in line for a glimpse of Church’s "spiritually uplifting" masterpiece depicting the Falls of Niagara.

In the 1870’s a small group of Eastern intellectuals claimed that there was something sacred at Niagara – that all land surrounding the Falls should be repurchased by the State, and that all structures upon them should be removed at government expense.

It was Frederick Law Olmsted who eventually articulated the case for saving the Falls in their natural state. In 1869, he and a group of politically prominent citizens made suggestions concerning the establishment of a park on some of the islands above the falls. At the urging of Frederic Church and others, Lord Dufferin – the Governor-General of Canada – came out in favor of preserving the Falls in their natural state in 1878. (The Canadian side of the Falls had also become commercialized.)

Lucius Robinson, the Governor of New York, surprised many observers by endorsing Lord Dufferin’s proposal. Olmsted lost little time in taking advantage of his support.

In the face of massive political opposition from those concerned about the State’s potential to impinge on private property (and from taxpayers who objected to the great cost of restoring the falls), Olmsted devoted a tremendous amount of thought and energy to the Free Niagara movement. Although the initial plans for an international park were eventually abandoned, Olmsted’s ideas concerning the State’s part in the Niagara development were basically the ones incorporated into the successful Niagara legislation.

In order to persuade State officials to take over the Falls, Olmsted circulated a paper in favor of the project. It went to Albany endorsed by more than 600 of the world’s most respected figures – leaders in the arts, science, religion, and government.

Olmsted and his friends lined up writers to prepare a series of articles for distribution to local newspapers, dramatizing the critical situation at the falls. They organized a pressure group – the Niagara Falls Association – which distributed pamphlets, conducted public meetings, and circulated petitions aimed at convincing officials that the voters wanted the Falls returned to a natural state.

The battle over the establishment of a reservation at Niagara continued until 1885. In the end, it involved four incumbent governors and almost every other prominent political figure in the State of New York. The crucial Niagara appropriations bill of 1885 was signed at the last possible moment by a very hesitant Governor David B. Hill, who was deeply concerned about his chances in the upcoming election. His signature marked the beginning not just of a state park, but of a state park system as well. (A park was established on the Canadian side of the river shortly thereafter.)

The way had been cleared for Olmsted to fill in the outline of the park he had envisioned for so long. He resisted all pressures for frills and ornamentation (very popular in his day), sought to keep all essential facilities from appearing harshly intrusive, and worked to restore the natural character of the total setting of the Falls.

He recognized that the waterfall’s spray and mist, which do not abate even in driest seasons, encourage trees to their fullest growth and support plant life of great variety and beauty. Olmsted took full advantage of this and other assets of the Falls’ surroundings, and designed a landscape that was softly natural, simple and yet intricate, and a perfect complement to the magnificent waterfalls themselves.

When, in the aftermath of the Niagara controversy, New York found itself with a growing collection of forests, scenic gorges, and other natural sites, Olmsted’s plan for the Niagara Reservation provided a plan that would be copied many times over.

Now the oldest state park in the United States, the Niagara Reservation plays host to millions of visitors each year. The falls at Niagara, preserved by farseeing visionaries one hundred years ago, remain free and open to the people of the world.