Schoellkopf Power Plant Ruins

Photograph Courtesy of Destination Niagara

The power of Niagara Falls was first harnessed as hydroelectricity in the late 1800s by a plant on the Canadian side and greatly enhanced by George Westinghouse and Nikola Tesla‘s first large-scale hydro-electric power plant on the American side in 1895. Today, the falls still supply about a quarter of all the power used in New York State and Ontario and enable modern day plants to pump out millions of kilowatts of electricity. You can learn all about the electrifying history of the falls at the Niagara Power Vista just up the river from the falls in the nearby town of Lewiston, and you can see the physical remnants of early power plants at the falls themselves. On the Canadian side, next to Horseshoe Falls, you will notice the massive ruins of the Ontario Power Company Generating Station which was built in 1905 and abandoned in 1999. Unfortunately, this defunct site is owned by the Niagara Parks Commission and is not accessible to the public, but there are ruins on the New York side that you can explore.

The Schoellkopf Ruins are what is left of the Schoellkopf Power Station which was built at the top of Niagara Gorge between 1905 and 1924. At the time of its completion, it was the largest hydroelectric power station in the world. The complex contained offices, gatehouses and other buildings at the top of the gorge and turbine-generator stations at the base. The site is perhaps most famously known for its collapse. On June 7, 1956, water seeping into the back wall caused the southern two-thirds of the station, Powerhouses 3B and 3C, to fall into the Niagara River gorge. The disaster caused approximately $20 million in damages at the time and the loss of 450,000 kilowatts of power from the New York State power grid. The remaining Station 3A operated at reduced capacity for the next five years and was eventually torn down by Robert Moses as part of a beautification project in 1962. In 2013 the site was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places.

What you’ll see today is the last remaining stone wall, a trailrace (a channel that carries water away from a hydroelectric plant) and the restored elevator shaft. Visitors to the site can take an elevator down through the shaft to get to the bottom of the gorge where there is a lookout point to see the falls. The elevator is located near the Niagara Gorge Discovery Center and is a great place to end a hike along the gorge’s many beautiful trails. The ruins are also the winter storage dock for Maid of the Mist boats. When visiting the site you can see the large crane used to hoist the boats up from the river and you can watch that process during the winter months.