Exploring Niagara Falls: From Underground Railroad Route to Postcard Romance

Postcard to Mr. Phillip Caughey, early 1907-1914

We are on our way home and are now watching the falls. Wouldn’t you like to be with us?

Trina (or Laura?)*

Although trips to Niagara Falls have fallen in popularity in the 21st century, the Falls was a hot spot for tourism through the middle of the 19th and through the 20th centuries. Groups of honeymooners, children, the elderly, and young adults clamored to catch a glimpse of the falls majestic beauty. Theodosia Burr and her husband were the first recorded couple to honeymoon at the falls in 1801.

Being on the Canadian border, the falls also served as a route to freedom on the Underground Railroad as laws leading up to the Civil War pushed enslaved men and women who freed themself further and further North, until finally the only safe place was Canada.

Tourism to the falls grew after the American Civil War, thanks to the trains, and then boomed again in the years after the World War I, thanks to cars.

Thus it was that our friend Trina (or Laura) came to be one of the millions of visitors who took in the sweeping majesty of 3,160 tons of water streaming over the falls every second. She enjoyed the trip so much that she bought, wrote, and sent a postcard from Niagara to her friend Phillip.

I have two ideas about this postcard. It’s a short message, written in pencil and added to the very side of the postcard almost as an afterthought. It’s almost as though at the last moment Trina (Laura?) decided to taunt Phillip (wouldn’t you like to be with us?).

Alternatively, seeing as the spot has romantic undertones I’d like to imagine that our heroine, Trina/Laura, thought of the man she’d like to be with and threw caution to the wind by sending him a postcard. At the last minute, she chose to add in a bit of cheeky flirtation — which is why the message is so squished to the left side. .

Either way, I love the message. I love the way Phillip’s name is misspelled then fixed. I love the sass, I love the idea of young people visiting Niagara Falls as a fun outing or trip. Admittedly, I didn’t look too hard for Phillip. I’d like to live in my own imagination on this one, and dream that, indeed, he would have liked to have been with his friends in Niagara Falls.

*The signature on the bottom of the card looks like Trina to me, but Laura to my husband. Neither of us could quite agree, but since it’s my blog, I decided to go with Trina. Please feel free to weigh in.

Front of card with an image of Whirlpool Rapids, Niagara Falls