The Mighty Niagara: One River - Two Frontiers (review)

Geographer John N. Jackson's Mighty Niagara is not really a book about the internationally famous river and its sublime cataracts, even though the title and the cover photograph seem to suggest so. Rather, this book is about the historical and geographical region called the Niagara Frontier - or, perhaps to interpret Jackson's intention more precisely, the two Niagara frontiers. Since the creation of the international border at the river in 1783, these frontiers, which encompass Buffalo, Lewiston, Lockport, Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake, and St Catharines, have developed as a 'friendly' striving, similar, yet divided administrative, economic, and geographical region. What particularly motivates Jackson to examine this cross-border region is to provide an understanding of the significant changes that have taken place in the characteristics of this man-made landscape. To do so, Jackson invited two urban geographers, John Burtniak and Gregory P. Stein, to join him as co-authors, with the daunting task of documenting and mapping changing settler land uses, transportation networks, and technological changes from 1783 to the present.

The outcome is a dry but detailed description of landscape changes, which are accompanied with rich illustrations. The main body of the book examines the early settlement pattern that was based on the unique 'front and rear' survey system, the development of the Erie and Welland Canals after the 1820s, the expansion and the demise of the railway network, the emergence of the automobile and multilane highways, and the impact hydroelectric plants had on urban development. This chronologically organized survey is not the colourful and romantic epic Pierre Berton provided in his Niagara, but it is more informative than Berton. Indeed, it supersedes the preceding comprehensive treatise, Niagara's Changing Landscapes (1994), which was written by Jackson's Brock University colleagues.

The Mighty Niagara may not be a lively read, but neither is it laden with academic terminology. The authors explain geological features and technological concepts very well, using plain language. What makes the study a tough read is the absence of human actors. Readers are not told who introduced and executed the unique survey system, or how labourers, surveyors, engineers, and promoters planned and built the two canals, railways, and highways. Likewise, little is said about the romantic, scientific, and geographical images of the Niagara region promoters, policymakers, or tourists strove to create, stories Karen Dubinsky eloquently told in her study of the making of the imaginary geography of Niagara Falls in the nineteenth century.

Despite these shortcomings, The Mighty Niagara makes some notable contributions to the popular and scholarly literature about the Niagara region. One of the most significant and interesting is in the section about the surviving Native heritage of the region. Contrary to Niagara's Changing Landscape, in which Wesley B. Turner sweepingly claims that 'there are no significant legacies of Aboriginal occupation on the present landscape of the Niagara Region,'^I The Mighty Niagara convincingly demonstrates that the 'Iroquois trail,' 'Mohawk trail,' and other Native travel routes 'remain an intrinsic part of the modern landscape,' as we can see in the radial road pattern of the modern city of the frontier.

Another notable contribution is the chapter on the development of hydroelectric plants. The Niagara hydroelectric operation of the 1890s was the first and most influential large-scale hydroelectric enterprise in North America. It took advantage of the newest available technologies of alternating current electricity, electric generators, and long-distance transmission lines. The significant impact these technologies had on Niagara power-generating operations and on urban-planning activities elsewhere on the North American continent in the twentieth century are explored in this chapter.

Overall, in The Mighty Niagara, the three veteran geographers demonstrate their thorough knowledge of changing urban infrastructures within the two competing frontiers. Altogether, The Mighty Niagara is a welcome addition to the literature of US...