Niagara Falls Daredevil Museum

After Red Hill's death, his children carry on the daredevil legacy, sometimes with deadly results.

The stories about Red Hill read like hyperbole, like Paul Bunyon or Mike Fink stories. Commended by the Canadian government for a life-saving rescue at the age of nine, rescuing a tourist from a collapsing ice bridge, wounded in World War 1, several trips through the Niagara rapids in a barrel, bootlegging runs from Canada to the United States, the daring rescue of two men stuck on a grounded boat on the brink of the horseshoe falls, and an interstate chase after a stolen turtle.

After becoming the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel, Annie Edson Taylor looks to capitalize and travel the world. Unfortunately, she is not the heroic image people want to see, and her managers make things even more difficult for her.

After conquering Niagara Falls, Charles Blondin went on to become so famous, that he was referenced by Abe Lincoln, was written about by Charles Dickens, and incited a Woodstock ''99-style riot while performing.

Charles Blondin walked over Niagara gorge on a tightrope, sometimes stopping to cook an omelet, sometimes carrying a man on his back or wearing a monkey suit, but always wowing audiences.

Even after his death, Sam Patch lives on in songs, poems, folklore, and in children's books.

Sam Patch drew crowds of thousands who came to watch his dangerous leaps from the rooftops, waterfalls, cliff sides, the top of a ship mast, into the waters below. Patch was a drunk, a scoundrel, a roughneck millworker, a hero of the working class, and the first true American daredevil.

Learn about Niagara Fall's death-defying feats, some deadly ones, daring rescues, stranger-than-fiction historical tidbits, and start to understand what makes someone willing to risk everything for a shot at claiming a spot in the history books.