Niagara Falls, New York: The Honeymoon Capital That Lost to Canada

In 1960, Niagara Falls, New York had 102,000 people. Today it has fewer than 49,000. How does a city built on a wonder of the world empty out? In June of 1969, engineers turned off the American Falls. For five months, crowds stood at the railing staring at a bare cliff, and the engineers asked whether the falls were coming apart. The falls were left to nature. The city around them was another story. This film follows the money behind the honeymoon capital of America: the Porter family, who made visitors pay for the view until the state bought them out; Jacob Schoellkopf, who paid $71,000 for a bankrupt canal and lit a city with it; Annie Taylor, who went over the falls in a barrel to stay out of the poorhouse; the Falls Street of the postcards and the Marilyn Monroe picture; and a teenager who sold Maid of the Mist tickets for a dollar and one day bought the boats. Then the cracks: a power station that slid into the gorge in 1956, a mayor who cleared downtown with urban renewal money for a new city that never quite came, a chemical dump under a neighborhood school, and a Canadian shore that ended up with most of the hotel beds, the casinos and the best seat in the house. The story is built from census records, the international board's report on the American Falls, the 1957 Niagara Redevelopment Act, the University at Buffalo's Love Canal archive, oral histories and decades of local and national reporting. It is told with respect for everyone in it — the builders and dreamers, the workers and families who paid the price, and the people who still call this city home — and it leaves the conclusions to you. If you honeymooned at Niagara, or your parents did, we would love to hear which side of the river you stayed on. Chapters: 0:00 The Summer They Turned Off the Falls 3:46 The Family That Owned the View 7:55 $71,000 for a Bankrupt Canal 10:22 The Water Goes to Work 14:51 A Barrel for Her Old Age 17:55 How the Honeymoon Capital Was Sold 21:52 The Great White Way 26:03 The Day the Power Fell 29:20 The Power Moves Out 32:59 The Mayor Who Tore Down Downtown 37:08 What They Decided to Leave Alone 40:19 Love Canal 47:41 The Casino Came to Canada First 54:09 Half a River 59:12 Same Mist Selected sources: U.S. Census Bureau — QuickFacts: Niagara Falls city, New York (2020 census) American Falls International Board / International Joint Commission — Preservation and Enhancement of the American Falls at Niagara: Final Report (1974) U.S. Congress — Niagara Redevelopment Act, 16 U.S.C. 836 (1957) Elizabeth McKinsey — The Honeymoon Trail to Niagara Falls, Prospects (1984) University at Buffalo Libraries — Love Canal Chronologies PBS American Experience — Poisoned Ground: An Accident in Slow Motion Kat Eschner — When the Niagara River Crushed a Power Plant, Smithsonian Magazine (2017) Buffalo Spree — Niagara Falls: What Happened? (2000) Niagara Falls Public Library (Ontario) — Famous visitors: Marilyn Monroe National Park Service / Discover Niagara — Cecelia Jane Reynolds and the Cataract House Carys Mills — Loss of Maid of the Mist contract may sink ferry service, The Globe and Mail (2012) Mark Scheer — Yet another failing Niagara Falls project, Investigative Post (2022) This is a documentary about history, not financial advice. Some scenes are illustrated with reconstructions. #NiagaraFalls #AmericanHistory #HoneymoonCapital About this film: some scenes are AI-generated reconstructions, used only where no original footage or photographs exist, and they are marked on screen as reconstructions. The narration is an AI voice. The script is researched and fact-checked against the sources listed above.