The namesake of the power station was Edward Dean Adams (1846-1931) - a New York financier who developed the ideas of harnessing the might of Niagara into a realistic construction plan. The fact that he had connections with J.P. Morgan also helped the venture economically. A 6700 foot horseshoe shaped tunnel was built 160 feet deep along the river shore here in order to draw in water that would spin massive turbines in two power houses and generate 200,000 horsepower. In 1896 these plants brought Buffalo onto their power grid, the first transmission of electricity over a long distance.
The Niagara Falls Power Company was also among the first to embrace Nikola Tesla’s method of using alternating current (against the advice of Edison and Lord Kelvin) which allowed the distribution of power to become a economic and physical reality.
The microcache is located below the bank of the Robert Moses roadway, near the Quay St./ Buffalo Ave. ramps, about a mile upstream from the American Falls. Nearby once stood the Adams Power Stations # 1 and 2. Here, in a small, lonely grassy plot on former Carborundum Abrasives Co. property, nearly forgotten, rarely visited, and almost undetectable from the roadway above, sits a stone chimney – dating to 1750 – when even the oldest Oaks in DeVeaux woods were but young seedlings.
This relic of bygone days is the chimney of Fort Little Niagara, a structure built to defend the terminus of the famous Portage road that allowed "canow" (canoe) and bateaux to detour around the unnavigable rapids and falls of the Niagara River. Initially this was a crude path, and later a roadway, which ran from Lewiston (then “St. Louis”), just below the escarpment (near present-day Artpark) to this spot, along the upper Niagara, a mile upstream from the Falls. The fur and other trade in the 1700s between Detroit (then the great western metropolis) and Quebec by way of Ft. Niagara was wholly dependent on this route and its connection with the upper Niagara river and Lake Erie. So great was the value of the traded goods going west and east along this route, that the French saw need to build fortifications at both ends and along the portage route to protect the commerce.
In 1751, fortifications called Fort Little Niagara - being a dependency of the larger Fort Niagara at the Lake Ontario end of the river - were built, consisting of three log blockhouses with strong surrounding palisades. Near these were barracks for soldiers, as well as huts and cabins for the Frenchmen and Indians employed in the portage trade thereabouts. At one end of the barracks was built the stone chimney, which is the only remnant still standing today.This structure, called the Fort Schlosser chimney, although it was built ten years before Fort Schlosser, was erected in 1750. Except the old “castle” (main building) at Fort Niagara (which was constructed in 1727 under the auspices of the French engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Lery), this chimney is the oldest extant piece of masonry west of Albany, NY. Fort Little Niagara was abandoned by the French in 1759 and burned under command of it’s master, Chabert Joncaire Jr., who was summoned with his 60 men in defense of the greater fort against the besieging British.
The chimney originally stood west of the Portage route, but after the Niagara Falls Power Company purchased the lands along the river to build the Adams Station it was moved 100 ft. eastward, in 1915. At that time, the Niagara Frontier Historical Society placed a plaque on it (still present), inscribed as follows...
“...Built by French, 1750, one hundred feet westward in Fort Little Niagara’s barracks, which they burned in 1759. To it British built in 1761 the Stedman house (where that master of the portage lived until United States occupation in 1796) which, in 1808, became Broughton’s tavern. Burned by British in devastation of 1813. Re-erected here in 1898 by Niagara Falls Power Company. Marked by the Niagara Frontier Historical Society in 1915...”
Cache is well-hidden...less than 60% of cachers find it (as many DNF's are unreported or referred to in logs)......contains log book only... Bring a pencil.Please enter name and date ONLY...
Please return log carefully and DO NOT RECAP TOO TIGHTLY...leave cache location EXACTLY AS YOU FOUND IT. This cache has been stolen twice before, hence it's method of being secured this time. Only the cap of the container can be removed...
First to Find= bigwheel