Boom Days kick-off celebrates spring's arrival
Canada’s role as partner embraced in spring rite
The first time that Boom Days organizers dropped a big rubber ball into the water to celebrate the annual removal of the Lake Erie ice boom, they assumed that it would float down the Niagara River and over Niagara Falls, heralding in spectacular fashion the true arrival of spring on the Niagara Frontier.
But the ceremony was held on the fireboat Edward M. Cotter out on the lake, near where the river begins, and the wind gusted in the wrong direction at the critical moment.
“The ball blew toward Cleveland,” chuckled Clinton Brown, a Buffalo architect and a Boom Days founder.
Lesson learned: Always raise a forefinger first to see which way the air is moving.
Wind was no factor in Thursday’s seventh Boom Days ball drop from the Peace Bridge over the river. The event was moved there partly so the 7-foot-diameter red orb could go only downstream, but also to welcome Canada’s participation in Boom Days festivities taking place this weekend along the length of the river from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario.
“We’ve always wanted to make it a riverlong, riverwide event,” Brown said. “This is the first international celebration.”
In sunny, calm conditions, Mayors Doug Martin of Fort Erie, Ont., and Ted Salci of Niagara Falls, Ont., helped Mayors Byron W. Brown of Buffalo and Paul A. Dyster of Niagara Falls, N.Y., push the air-filled ball over the railing at the international border.
They watched it float toward Grand Island as the Cotter’s water cannons propelled an impressive spray from the Black Rock Channel. Now it was up to the ball to reach the waterfall 16 miles away, which Clinton Brown said has happened only once.
Currently under the stewardship of Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, Boom Days will continue Saturday with events in Buffalo, Niagara Falls and Youngstown.
It’s not the only rite of spring taking place along the water.
In Niagara Falls, a state parks and recreation crew is rebuilding the deck at the base of the Bridal Veil and the American Falls in preparation for a May 7 opening of the Cave of the Winds.
The team headed by chief builder Brendan Walsh is using hand tools to assemble the five wooden structures, including the Hurricane Deck. Because rocks at the base of the falls shift from year to year, the blueprint is never the same.
“There’s no set design,” said Amy Ortman, state parks activities coordinator.
A few hundred feet away, the 72-foot-long Maid of the Mist V was to be slowly lowered into the river today to “test the waters” for the approaching Niagara Falls tour season. The four-vessel Maid of the Mist fleet is one of North America’s oldest tourist attractions.
Boom Days will kick off Saturday with hundreds of volunteers enlisted by Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper working from 9 a. m. to noon to clean up 40 shoreline and riverbank sites. Call 852-7483 to sign up. An open kite-flying event is scheduled from 1 to 4 p. m. at Tifft Nature Preserve, 1200 Fuhrmann Blvd.
A party from 5:30 to 10 p. m. at Dug’s Dive, 1111 Fuhrmann, will open with a welcome from Rick Smith, Boom Days chairman, and Julie Barrett O’Neill, Riverkeeper executive director. The event will continue with music, a reading and book-signing by Margaret Wooster, author of “Living Waters: Reading the Rivers of the Lower Great Lakes,” and fireworks.
Boom Days parties also are scheduled Saturday evening at the LaSalle Yacht Club, 73 South 68th St., Niagara Falls, and the Youngstown Yacht Club, 491 Water St., Youngstown.
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