Advertising handbill for a stunt jump at Niagara Falls

Advertising handbill for a stunt jump at Niagara Falls

"As his fame increased, Sam was offered $75 by a group of hotel owners to jump at the Niagara Falls in October 1829. No one had ever survived a jump at Niagara. Sam’s jump was scheduled for October 6, but he arrived too late to make the jump, so it was rescheduled for the next day. On October 7 he made a successful jump of about 80 feet (24 meters), but the small size of the crowd (and, presumably, the smaller than anticipated amount of the spectators’ contributions) disappointed him. He arranged for a second jump on Saturday, October 17, and distributed promotional handbills to publicize it. As promised in the handbill, he also jumped from the 50-foot (15-meter) masthead of the steamboat Niagara on his way to the falls. This time some 10,000 spectators witnessed his leap at the falls. Sam thrilled the crowd by jumping about 120 feet (37 meters) from a platform built at the top of a ladder that was chained to the cliff wall, into the churning, aerated waters below the falls. After Niagara Falls, Sam’s fame grew even more, as word spread of his “Aero-Nautical Feats, never before attempted, either in the Old or New World.'"

Unknown

Unknown newspaper

October 1829

Brian Lokker

https://owlcation.com/humanities/sam-patch-early-american-daredevil

Paper