History; July 9, 1960; the miracle at Niagara

It was a quiet, calm, sunny summer day back in 1960 in southern Ontario. But a miraculous story was about to occur that would make news around the world.

Tens of thousands of tourists were on both the American and Canadian sides of Niagara Falls that day  admiring the majesty and shear power of nature as the powerful spectacle of the American falls, and the larger Canadian Horseshoe Falls roared with the might of millions of litres of water cascading into the gorge far below.

Far above the falls and at a relatively safe distance, a small aluminium boat with an equally small outboard motor was out on the river.

Young Roger Woodward, aged 7, and his sister Deanna, 17, had only recently moved with their family to the Niagara Falls New York area,  A family friend Jim Honeycutt aged 40, from Raleigh North Carolina was in the area working on a contract for the Niagara Parks Commission Hydro project.  Staying at trailer park about eight kilometres upstream, he offered to give the youngsters a ride out on the Niagara River to celebrate Deanna’s 17th birthday. Young Roger didn’t know how to swim so his mother insisted that he wear a lifejacket.

As they puttered along, the boat hit a rock shearing a pin on the propeller. With no power, the boat began to drift downstream with the current. Roger was wearing his lifejacket and Jim tells Deanne to put on the only other one.

The little boat had no anchor and Jim began to row back to shore, but the current began picking up speed much faster than he was able to row back.  As they entered the rapids which begin some distance above the falls the boat filled with water from the increasingly wild waves and the three were soon into the river.

The three were tossed about in the rapids, becoming separated. Deanne was closest to the American side of the Horseshoe Falls and struggling to reach the shore. Shocked tourists spotted her in the water. One man climbed over the safety railing near the lip of the falls and at the very last second just barely managed to grab her hand as she swept past. As he hung on, another man helped pull her in literally just metres from the edge of the  Falls themselves.

Roger could be seen by onlookers but was out of reach as they watched in horror as he was carried to the edge and disappeared over the falls. Jim Honeycutt who had no lifejacket was not seen

Later Roger would say that he could see the people on the shore but no one was able to help him. He said the water calmed a bit.and then he was floating in air. He recalled thinking he was about to die saying he felt he was floating in a cloud.

He was actually falling along with hundreds of tons of water some 162 feet (50 metres) into the gorge below.

In spite of the massive boulders which litter the river below, and the fact he could have been pushed by the weight and force of the water another 35 metres to the bottom below the falls, he instead quickly bobbed to the surface.

Dazed and with a slight concussion but otherwise miraculously unhurt, he is spotted by the crew of the Maid of the Mist excursion boat which carries tourists in the river just below the Canadian Falls.

While many daredevils have willingly gone over the Falls, with many deaths and a few survivors, young Roger Woodward is the only one to have gone unwillingly over the Falls and survived,quickly being taken to the Niagara Falls Ontario hospital where he was pronounced in good condition.

Unfortunately Jim Honeycutt did not survive..

The papers at the time began dubbing it the Miracle at Niagara. Both Deanne and Roger have revisited the Falls on a couple of occasions and told their stories in several interviews over the decades since, Roger too has said the rescue of his sister at the very brink, and his own survival of the plunge can only be considered miracles.