Goat Island is a small uninhabited island in the Niagara River, located in the middle of Niagara Falls between the Bridal Veil Falls and Horseshoe Falls. The island is at the southwest corner of the City of Niagara Falls (and of Niagara County), New York, in the United States.
Goat Island is a popular destination for tourists visiting the falls on the U.S. side, offering some of the most spectacular views available there, in particular at Terrapin Point. It is connected to the U.S. mainland by two bridges carrying foot, car, and trackless train traffic. The island is largely wooded and is interlaced with foot trails. An elevator provides access down to the foot of the falls and to the Cave of the Winds tour.
Botany
In 1879, botanist Frederick Law Olmsted, wrote that he had travelled four thousand miles throughout the continent "without finding elsewhere the same quality of forest beauty which was once abundant about the falls, and which is still to be observed in those parts of Goat Island where the original growth of trees and shrubs had not been disturbed..." Olmsted conlcuded that the spray from the Falls created a natural nursery for indigenous plant life.
Geology
The island was formed geologically during the recent retreat of the falls as it cuts inward (upstream) through the Niagara Escarpment. The channel of the Niagara River splits in two above the falls, creating two sets of falls, one on either side of the island. In 1959-60, the eastern side of the island was extended about 8.5 acres (34,000 m²) for additional parking and a helicopter pad. Fill was provided from excavation for the construction of the Robert Moses State Parkway. The western end of the island is slowly being eroded by the falls and the entire island will eventually disappear as the falls erode further upstream. The waters immediately around Goat Island are relatively shallow and studded with islets and rocks, many of them scenes of dramatic rescues and rescue attempts.
History
John Stedman - an early pioneer and miller - kept a herd of goats on the island. The animals all died in the terrible winter of 1780, but gave the island its name.
The preservation of the island as parkland is due to the early efforts of Augustus Porter, who in the middle 19th century recognized the long-term value of the falls as a tourist attraction. Porter purchased the island and later allowed a group of Tuscarora Native Americans to live on the island and sell their crafts to the tourists who came to the falls by stagecoach and early railroads. In spite of pressure, Porter refused to tame the environment on the island. In 1817, he built a toll bridge to the island for tourists. It was swept away by ice, so another was built the following year downstream. Basil Hall called it "one of the most singular pieces of engineering in the world". Almost seven hundred feet long, it soon became the best-travelled walkway in the region.
In 1885 the island was included in the Niagara Reservation State Park which is the oldest state park in the U.S.
