It used to be a tourist attraction to go out on the river ice in the winter. People would climb the ice bridge, others would set up shacks and sell souvenirs, food and liquor right on the ice. It was a cold Sunday afternoon, February 4, 1912, when suddenly, without warning, the ice started cracking and breaking up. Everyone ran for their lives, heading for the shores. Four people were stranded on an ice flow. Niagara’s famous river man and rescuer was there, Red Hill Sr. He saved two of them, but a couple from Toronto, Mr. and Mrs. Eldridge Stanton, remained stuck on the ice. One of the young men who was rescued, Burl Hecock, from Cleveland, jumped back on the ice to help the Stantons. The three of them floated down the river. Bystanders saw their predicament and ran down the river banks to the two bridges downstream and let down ropes. As the three floated under the bridges, they tried to secure themselves to the ropes but were unable to do so and drowned in the frigid ice water. Since that day over a century ago, they made it illegal to go out on the river ice in the winter.