Charles Stephens

Many individuals lost their lives while attempting to conquer the mighty Niagara River. The first individual to perish while attempting to go over the Falls in a barrel was Charles Stephens. Stephens a barber from Bristol, England went over the falls on July 11, 1920 in a hooped oak barrel he constructed himself. He had tied an anvil to his feet to weigh him down; unfortunately this would prove to be his demise as the heavy anvil broke through the bottom of the barrel taking Stephens under the dangerous rapids to his watery grave. Officials have never recovered his body.