Luckily, We Don’t Have These Problems On The Rock River

By "these problems," I mean a 100 year old shipwreck threatening to break free and fall over Horseshoe Falls.

One of the main reasons that we don't have this sort of situation on the Rock River is that we don't have hundred-year-old shipwrecks waiting to break free. And, even if we did, the biggest drop-off might be a ten foot drop from one of the Rock's dams.

At Niagara Falls, it's a different situation:

WGN News:

In 1918, a vessel known as a dumping scow became disconnected from its tug boat — with two men aboard — during a dredging operation, according to the Commission, an agency of the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. The scow got stranded in the Niagara River, some 650 yards shy of Horseshoe Falls, one of three separate waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls.

While the iron boat deteriorated badly over the century it’s been exposed to the elements, the scow has remained tightly fixed to a rock outcropping since August 1918. That is, until Thursday — Halloween — when gusts of wind and lashings of rain battered the falls, and the remains of the barge.

The Niagara Parks staff is continuing to monitor the activity of the scow, in the event it moves again. Hill says the remains might be stuck in their new perch “for days or for years. It’s anyone’s guess.”