Where did the attempts to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel come from and has anyone successfully done it? –Anonymous, via the Internet
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Going over Niagara Falls in a barrel was once the archetypal daredevil’s feat, but it’s hardly the only stunt ever attempted there. The first glory hunter was Sam Patch, who leaped into the churning waters at the foot of the falls twice in 1829, the second time from a hastily built ladder more than 100 feet high. (He survived, but was killed later that year jumping at a different falls.) In 1859 a French “funambulist” (tightrope walker) known as the Great Blondin sashayed across Niagara’s gorge on a specially made rope three inches in diameter and 1,100 feet long. Blondin made several repeat trips that year: for one he carried his manager on his back, and for another he toted a small stove, which he used to cook an omelette halfway across.
Others followed. To date ten people have made it, two of them women; five have died (details on early cases from Roll Out the Barrel: The Story of Niagara’s Daredevils by Francis Petrie, 1985):
William “Red” Hill Jr., 13 heavy-duty inner tubes lashed together with canvas webbing and fishnet, 1951. Died.
Dave Munday, aluminum and plastic barrel, 1985. Survived; repeated in 1993 in a converted diving bell. First person to go over twice.
