William Hunt, better known as Farini, the famous tightrope walker from Port Hope Ontario who offered during the Confederation Conference in Quebec in 1864 to wheel Governor General Monck across Momorency Falls, blindfolded, as long as George Brown checked the rope and George Etienne Cartier tied the blindfold, was stuck this month, August 1864, on Goat Island above Niagara Falls. He’d been rehearsing for a walk with stilts in the rapids above the American Falls. http://www.nytimes.com/1864/08/11/news/european-arrival-mail-hibernian-mexico-polish-insurrection-parliament-exciting.html?pagewanted=1
Of course this month, August 2011, there have been more daredevil walks – on tightropes, not through rapids, proposed above the falls. Supported by the US, denied by Canada.
(Oh by the way, Nik Wallenda, Farini wasn't allowed to either.)
(Oh by the way, Nik Wallenda, Farini wasn't allowed to either.)
