Burning Springs

Handbill advertising the Burning Springs in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

The Burning Spring was a tourist attraction located on the Canadian side of the Niagara River, above the Horseshoe Falls around the Dufferin Islands.  It is said to have been one of the earliest tourist attractions in Niagara Falls.  Natural gas was harnessed to make an attraction by attaching a barrel with a corked pipe in the vicinity of the gas leak.  When the cork was removed from the pipe the natural gas was emitted and ignited, creating the "burning spring".  A nearby natural spring contained water that was purported to have health benefits.  The attraction was forced to move when the Niagara Parks Commission took ownership of the land in 1887. 

An advertisement for the attraction notes that "...this spring is annually visited by thousands, charmed at once with the sight.  The Spring is charged with Sulphuretted Hydrogen Gas, and when ignited burns with a brilliant flame.  The gas is composed from a bed of Coal, Ore, and Sulphur.  Sulphur, Iron and Magnesia are the Mineral properties of the water.   It is an Indian discovery, accidentally found by them eighty years ago, shown as a curiousity over fifty years.  Close to the Burning Springs is a pure sulphur spring but not containing any gas, but its water is of a high Medicinal quality."  

The Burning Spring