Today, the New York State Quarter Coin remembers the many people daring the waters of the Niagara, and in particular, one gentleman’s successful trips through the rapids in barrel of his own design 130 years ago.
An article in the Wide World Magazine of April 1899, titled The Heroes of Niagara by Orrin D. Dunlap, told of the feats of many of the daredevils in the water with an excerpt describing Mr. Graham:
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Three years passed without any further attempts being made to swim the rapids, and then, in 1886, a Philadelphia cooper named Carlisle D. Graham became imbued with the idea that he would risk his life in the rapids in a barrel of his own construction.
He built the barrel and travelled to Niagara.
On Sunday afternoon, July 11th, 1886, Graham entered his barrel and made the trip in safety, going right away through the gorge to Lewiston.
His success was applauded all over the world.
His confidence in his own handiwork had not been misplaced.
He was about thirty -five minutes passing down the river.
Graham won great popularity, and all who knew him said he deserved it.
Then Graham became more daring, and on Thursday, August 19th, 1886, he made the trip through the whirlpool rapids as far as the whirlpool with his head protruding from the top of the barrel.
In this, as well as in the first trip, his body was suspended in a hammock swung on the inside of the barrel, so that he could not strike the sides with any great force.
Graham’s barrel was long and high.
Its narrow bottom was well weighted so that it would stand upright in the water.
Thus Graham virtually assumed a standing position on the inside of the barrel.
His trip through the rapids with his head protruding required unlimited nerve, for then he could see when he was in the midst of the roughest waters, and had his barrel not been buoyant enough to keep him above the waters he must have drowned.
Graham made a third trip on June 15th, 1887, and a fourth trip on August 25th, 1889.
In this last trip he used a much smaller barrel than on any of his previous trips, and passed through the gorge to Lewiston.
He won more fame for his trips than any other person.
All of his trips were witnessed by immense crowds, and it may be said of Graham that he never disappointed a Niagara audience. He was always to time.
Following his fourth rapids trip, Graham announced his intention of going over the falls.
He sent several barrels over the cataract to study the currents, and all but one were lost.
The morning papers on Monday, September 2nd, 1889, told how Graham had gone over the falls on Sunday, September 1st, hut it was a journalistic “fake.”
Graham afterwards stated that he had had a barrel sent over the falls that morning, while he watched in an eddy below the cataract for its coming.
The barrel was smashed into small pieces, and, as he said himself, he had not the audacity to claim he came over the falls in any one of them.
But, outside of this, Graham is deserving of much credit for what he did do at the falls, or rather in the rapids.
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The New York State Quarter Coin shows with an image of Carlisle D. Graham and one of his Niagara traveling barrels.
