SleepbyStephenKing: Schoellkopf Power Station

For the first part of the exploration, showing how we got down to the plant (and what we found along the way), please check out Part 1 - The Approach.

As I said then, I'll let the photos speak for themselves . . .

The roar was awesome. It looked as if the whole gorge wall had opened up like the side of a skyscraper down it came. Rocks and masonry burst into the air splitting into thousands of pieces and pelted the river like shrapnel. And a few fell on the Canadian side. A jet stream of water was unleashed. Three violent blasts followed. The river turned a sickly brown. White smoke poured upward from the gaping gorge mouth and the resounding echo died.

[Thanks to Thunder Alley for compiling the news reports of the day, nearly 60 years ago]

The Schoellkopf Power Station is one of those almost mythical locations that have obsessed me since my early childhood days. Every time we drove\along the Niagara Parkway or took the Rainbow Bridge over to Niagara Falls NY, it called to me. I could see the ruined architecture clinging tenuously to the wall of the escarpment, the darkened tunnels leading to hidden wonders I could only dream of . . . and the sheer, seemingly unclimbable wall that not even my father (who got me hooked in hiking and exploring) knew how to traverse.

I was determined that, someday, I would find a way down there to explore the ruins. That day came this summer, and it all started with a sign - a closed sign, yes, but a sign that we were on the right path.

The hike down was an interesting one, beginning with a peek into some nearby ruins of the water treatment plant.

Further down the trail we found the usual assortment of junked cars, along with some wheels that I suspect are remnants of the old railway that used to run along the river.

Our first glimpse of the ruins themselves was far overhead, nearly hidden within the trees, but it stopped us dead in our tracks. After an hour of hiking, we knew we were close.