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On Sunday, as we shared a glass of sassafras tea, made from boiling a root, Violence Schiffert took a call from a friend who said the sturgeon were spawning below the Lewiston Queenston Bridge.
I went at lunchtime today with Gord and found that yes, there are indeed huge prehistoric fish spawning in the river.
It’s an easy walk to see. Go in the upper parking lot at Artpark and drive past to the left. You will go past the decrepit white sculpture and come to a small lot used by people fishing and hikers.
Walk to the back of the lot, near the river, and it’s an easy walk to the section of concrete wall left from the Great Gorge Railway. The fish are immediately below.
Sturgeon are an endangered prehistoric fish. They can live 100 years or more and can grow to 6-foot in length. Their comeback has supposedly been aided by the proliferation of zebra mussels.
About sassafras: There are a few trees in the forest adjacent to the painted parking lot and also some in the gorge just south of the Whirlpool stairs.
What Schiffert shared with us looked like iced tea but tasted like the finest flat root beer you’ve ever tasted. He passed a finger-size section of root still fragrant despite multiple boilings. The only caution offered was that the beverage can act as a blood thinner. It was delicious.
