65° and Partly Cloudy
Image
The Crow’s Nest project has been ongoing for about 3 years to connect the Maid of the Mist dock to Prospect Point adjacent to the American Falls.
I visited there Thursday but it was not yet open.
The “Crow’s Nest” used to be a set of stairs located alongside the American Falls that allowed visitors to climb halfway up the side of the Falls for breathtaking views before requiring visitors to go back down into the Gorge and return to the upper level via the Maid of the Mist elevators where they can only leave by exiting through the gift shop.
Maid elevator operator is one of the levels of Hell in Dante’s Inferno.
The new stairs include a steel fire escape that will allow visitors who can handle 315 stairs to escape the Maid of the Mist docks without going through the gift shop and paying tariffs on tchotchkes made in China.
It will be wet, fun and exciting. I looked down from Prospect Point Thursday, thinking about Michael Agee, and saw a photographer gathering what I assume to be the first images of the waterfall from the new vantage point.
I would love for State Parks to allow for the Indigenous folks selling their locally made goods outside the Maid gift shop to be allowed to move closer to Prospect Point so they can meet the guests capable of climbing 315 stairs with the opportunity to buy American-made goods. I suspect they will be more interested than the people who take the elevator.
Editor’s note: “People who take the elevator” will be hereafter a term of derision. When I am feeble, which could be tomorrow, I will take the elevator. Until then, stairs are the bomb. Walk them and never buy junk made in China.
The stairs will be operated as a one-way egress from the lower gorge during the busy season, and as a two-way access to the overlook during a portion of the off season.
The $9 million project is being funded by State Parks capital funding, The Maid of the Mist Corporation, The Niagara River Greenway and the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund.
The initial release said “Work will be complete for the 2026 season.” Given the speed, and math of government, that sounds correct.
A project initially projected to cost $4 million and be completed in 2025 then became $6 million to be completed in 2026. In the end the cost was $9 million.
I will attend the ribbon cutting in a bit and watch to see if any of our local elected officials, who will be politely invited to genuflect before the bureaucrats, say anything that might make any difference for the host city or they will continue in their dutiful role as a disinterested third party.
