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Hidden Treasure in Niagara Falls

"This is part of our heritage," says author and historian who dreams of having a rarely seen relic retrieved and put on display.

NIAGARA FALLS, NY — “There’s a lot of history here," said author and historian Dan Davis, as he gazed over a railing at the lip of the Niagara Gorge, down to the river below.

Beneath the surface of those swift moving, aqua-colored waters there lies what in his estimation is nothing short of a “treasure.”

“It’s a wheel for one of the turbines that provided power for the generators for station 3-c at the Schoellkopf Power Plant,” Davis explained one recent morning.

According to Davis’ research, the wheel weighs 55 tons, and is an estimated 24 feet in diameter.

“We believe it was actually a spare wheel, and most likely got down there by the force of the water that was still flowing through the plant when it collapsed,” Davis said.

The Schoellkopf Power Plant was destroyed during several rock slides, which caused a portion of the gorge wall to collapse on June 7, 1956.

“One of the guys that comes down here exploring is Lloyd Draper, the son of Richard Draper, who was the only guy killed in the accident," Davis said.

The turbine wheel is believed to be located just off a point approximately 100 yards south of the Maid of the Mist dry dock facility.

Despite years of searching for it, Davis, now in his 70's, has never actually laid eyes on it.

“The last picture I have seen that somebody took was in 2012, " Draper said.

He was referring to a video taken by Roman Bobak of St. Catherines, Ontario and posted on Youtube.

Bobak took his video in November of that year, during a time when the maximum amount of water is diverted for power generation, reducing the water level in the lower Niagara.

Ordinarily, that still wouldn’t be enough to reveal the turbine wheel.

However, when Bobak captured the rare image, the region had just experienced an historic and prolonged drought which effected much of the great lakes basin, further lowering the river, and creating an unusually low water event.

"And it just hasn't been that way for a long time," Davis said.

Ultimately, Davis and others would like to see the turbine wheel retrieved from the river and put on display.

“I believe it's a piece of history and there’s an opportunity to pull it out and set it somewhere on a pedestal, and put a sign on it to explain the history of it," he said.

Ideas such as using helicopters or tug boats to retrieve the relic have been contemplated, and dismissed in the past.

But looking up at the cranes now used to hoist the Maid of the Mist boats in and out of the water before and after each tourist season, and which were only installed a few years ago, Davis becomes wistful.

“We could use airbags to float it to the surface, and down toward these cranes…maybe they could pick it up with those,” he mused.

It is not uncommon for hikers in the gorge to come across items of twisted wreckage from the infamous power plant collapse.

However, there is something special about this particular artifact, according to Davis, which has for the most part lain hidden for nearly 62 years.

"There may be other pieces of wreckage in the river, but there is nothing as important as this,” declared Davis.

“It’s not like a piece of structural steel, which just symbolizes a building. This is a turbine wheel, symbolic of hydroelectric power…it represents our city’s heritage, and a plant which set records as the biggest and best of its kind in the world at the time,” he said.

Click on the video player above to watch our story from reporter Dave McKinley and photojournalist Dooley O'Rourke.

We wish to gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Preservation, the Maid of the Mist Corporation, and the RightInNiagara YouTube Channel to produce this story.

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