The power house is built on what used to be Cedar Island. It takes advantage of the normal river current which used to flow around Cedar Island. A submerged weir diverts water into the forebay. The water enters the power house through steel penstocks which lead to the turbines located near the bottom of the wheel pit, 180 feet (56m) underground. After the water passes through the turbines it is discharged through a 2200 foot (670m) long tunnel to the river below. In 1907, the Rankine Power Station provided the first electricity to the Village of Fort Erie. By 1927, construction of the Rankine Power Station was completed. The final cost of construction of this power station including the installation of its eleven generators cost $5,199,827.78. Later, eleven blue generators produced 100,000 horsepower (75 megawatts). The generators have vertical shafts, wound for three-phase current, producing 11,000 volts of 25 cycle power at 250 revolutions per minute.
The station was closed in 2009 and handed over to the Niagara Parks Commission. Reason for the closure were: 1. The station produced 25 Hz power, and would have needed to be retrofitted to the North American standard of 60 Hz. 2. The turbines and generators had drifted out of alignment due to movement of the rock on which the station was built.
The Niagara Parks opened the Niagara Power Station to the public in 2021 and opened the tunnel in 2022.
This is a high volume tourist cache. TB's or coins might not be in the cache since not every tourist has a smartphone or laptop to log, they might wait until they are back in their home country. Sorry, I can't help that. I will mark a TB or coin as "missing" when it has not logged out in a few weeks and other cacher's tell me that it is not in the cache anymore. You might find a just dropped of TB or coin which is not on the cache page.
If You Found a Trackable in a Geocache
You’ll want to “Retrieve” or “Discover” it.
Steps:
1. Open the Geocaching® app.
2. Go to the cache you found (where you got the TB).
3. Tap “Log” to post your Found It log for the cache.
4. Scroll down before submitting your log and look for a section called “Trackables”.
5. Tap “Found a Trackable?” or “Trackable Inventory”.
6. Enter the tracking code (the unique code engraved on the tag or coin).
7. Choose an action:
• 🟢 Retrieve from [cache name] — if you physically took the trackable.,br />
• 🔵 Discover it — if you saw it but didn’t take it.
8. Finish your cache log and submit.
✅ The TB will now show in your inventory (if retrieved) or on your profile as “Discovered.”
PLEASE LOG TB'S AS SOON AS POSSIBLE!! This to keep it fun for everyone. Thank you.
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Cache is within boundary of $35 flat rate parking lot, near the Falls.
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