Waterfall Facts

The Niagara Falls moves upstream at an average rate of about 295ft a century!

Salmon can jump up to 12 feet high to clear waterfalls during their spawning migration, with most species averaging 4-6 feet.

A waterfall in Minnesota called The Devil's Kettle puzzled scientists for decades because half its water disappeared into a hole with no apparent outlet. The mystery was finally solved in 2017 when researchers confirmed the water simply flows through fractured rock and rejoins the river downstream.

A 7-year-old boy went over Niagara Falls with only a life jacket, and lived. In 1960, Roger Woodward, his 17-year-old sister and a family friend were in a small boat that lost power and flipped above the falls. Two tourists pulled his sister out 20 feet from the edge, but Roger and the friend went over, and the friend drowned. Below the falls, the Maid of the Mist crew got a life ring to Roger and hauled him aboard.

They turned Niagara Falls off. In 1969, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers dumped 28,000 tons of rock into the Niagara River, stopping the American Falls completely for five months. Tourists walked the dry riverbed and found millions of coins - and engineers discovered the fallen boulders below were holding the falls up.