Niagara's celebrated ice bridge, that frozen tundra below the falls stretching from the United States to Canada, brought an emotion-packed, spine-tingling death about this time in 1912.
Mother Nature can be beautiful as well as cruel, as she was on a bright but cold Feb. 4, 1912. She brought an unexpectedly sudden but lingering death to a Cleveland youth and a Toronto couple.
She alternately brought hope and despair, cheers and wails of grief to hundreds who had flocked to the gorge to witness the human agony.
Niagara Falls is well known for its summer splendor. But each winter, during January and February, the normally chilling temperatures bring a winter wonderland scene to the falls.
Now, visitors can only look at the ice bridge, which an 1841 guidebook described as "splendours surpassing those of the Polar Seas." Today, people are banned from venturing out on the ice bridge, but it was not always so.
At one time, before the tragedy, tourists were encouraged to walk out on the ice bridge. Youngsters rode toboggans on the snowy mounds. Local business people set up shanties on the ice and sold souvenirs, lunches, tobacco and liquor.
A news account in 1888, in describing the activity on the ice bridge, noted, "The several shanties were doing a good business" and visitors to the cataracts on that cold day "must have numbered fully 20,000."
The ice bridge, 40-to-50-feet thick, was considered safe for pedestrian traffic and small shanties. But all that changed with striking suddenness on that chill day in 1912. The players were Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge Stanton, of Toronto, and Burrell Hecock, of Cleveland. Mrs. Stanton was 28, her husband 36. They had no children after several years of marriage. Stanton was an official in a stationery firm in Toronto. Hecock, 17, and his lifelong buddy Ignatius Roth, 17, were on a winter holiday at the same time as the Stantons.
The Stantons and Hecock and Roth were on the ice bridge that fateful Sunday morning, browsing among the shanties, taking in the view and strolling on the solid-ice formation. It was shortly before noon.
At the same time, a huge block of ice lunged over the falls and thudded into the ice bridge, wrenching it loose from its frozen moorings on each shore. If it had happened later, in the afternoon, news accounts said, there probably would have been hundreds of tourists on the ice bridge.
Vendors and tourists alike made a mad dash for shore when they heard the thunderous crunching of the ice and felt the movement. The Stantons made a try for the American shore while Hecock and Roth took off for the Canadian side.
Mrs. Stanton fell and Mr. Stanton called for the youths to help him pick up his wife. Hecock, in a moment of gallantry and heroism, went to the aid of the couple. Roth hesitated.
Hecock and the Stantons moved toward the American shore, but by that time the ice was too far from the shore. They turned to try the Canadian side. Roth continued on and, by the time he reached the Canadian side, the ice was quite far from shore. Rescuers threw him a rope and pulled him to safety through the icy water.
The ice broke up further, leaving Hecock on one floe and Mr. and Mrs. Stanton on another. The strong current began moving them downriver toward the treacherous white water of the lower rapids and the whirlpool.
Fire departments from both sides of the river rushed to the bridges. Hundreds of spectators gathered as word of mouth quickly spread the news. A group of railroad workers were at the Cantilever Bridge. They obtained a long rope, tied an iron bar to the bottom and dropped it over the side in Hecock's direction.
He grabbed the rope and was dunked waist-high into the frigid water. Then the railroad men began slowly pulling him to the bridge some 190 feet above. Instead of just hanging on, Hecock attempted a hand-over-hand climb up the rope. People began to cheer as he moved closer and closer to safety, but the numbing cold took its toll and his hands began to slip.
Hecock, in a last desperate attempt at life, tried to grasp the rope with his teeth. Then he fell, plummeting 30 feet to an ice floe. He stood up momentarily. A wave hit. He was washed over and disappeared into his icy grave, as spectators screamed and wept.
Meanwhile, ropes were also thrown to the Stantons, who were some distance behind Hecock. They were unable to grasp the ropes. They watched the futile attempt to rescue Hecock and saw him go to his death.
Nearly an hour had passed since the ice bridge first broke up. Under the Lower Arch Bridge, farther down the river, Stanton managed to grab a rope. He tried to tie it around his wife, but the rope broke.
Then the ice floe was swamped and the Stantons were swept to their deaths.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Feb. 8 2005 |