The Iroquois Indians ancestors are part of the Niagara history, because they were the first people to discover the start of Niagara Falls. Their descendents formed the Iroquois confederacy some 1500 years later called the “Great League of Peace”. There are five nations in this confederacy which are the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and the Mohawk. They were all located in New York state. These nations were an important authority in the Northeast. The Seneca nation or “Keepers of the Western Door" were in the Niagara Falls region.
Father Louis Hennepin was a Recollect priest who was the first white man to step on Niagara Falls soil. He was born in 1627 in Ath, Belgium and was a missionary who visited many European countries. He went to the Falls and was surprised and amazed by the beauty of it and started collecting information. Hennepin went back to Europe in 1683 and wrote his view which included the first description of Niagara Falls. The book he published, which was written in many different languages, is called Decription de la Louisiane.
Niagara Fall’s population, tourism, and industry grew the most in the 1880’s and 1890’s because of three events. The first event took place when caring people did not want the falls to be surrounded by commercial buildings. They thought that if that happened, the beauty would be gone and spoiled. Soon, in 1885, the New York State Legislature formed the Niagara Reservation to protect the beauty of Niagara Falls.
| In 1892, the second event took place when the villages of Niagara Falls and the suspension bridge were built together to form one city. The city began to grow as people began moving in and around the city. |
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The last event takes place in 1885. Before that year, there was not a lot of electricity in use. That year, Edward Dean Adams hydroelectric generating station opened, giving the community a means for electricity. Due to this event, the area continued to grow in size and population.