Lost photos of a dry Niagara Falls found in a shoe box

In 1952 my husband and I sailed on the Niagara River, by the Falls, on the Maid of the Mist - the quite large boat that always looks like it's going to be capsized by the cascading waters but never is. I'd just found out that I was pregnant with our first child, and despite feeling a little queasy we were both in great spirits and enjoying our holiday. My husband was in the Royal Air Force and we were stationed in Washington after the Second World War. We spent a fortnight driving around Canada, stopping at little hotels and taking in the sights. We visited Montreal, Quebec, Ontario and Toronto. Naturally we wanted to see the mighty Niagara Falls, flowing on both the American and Canadian side of the border and once we got there we couldn't miss taking a trip on the famous Niagara River boat, the Maid of the Mist.

There was a sort of cable car affair over Niagara Falls in those days - I don't know if there still is - and it looked like it would give you very dizzy views, looking right down on the cascading water. We must have decided it looked too perilous for me in my newly pregnant state but we decided we just had to sail on the Maid of the Mist. Before you boarded the boat in those days, you were taken off behind the Falls and handed a heavy waterproof cape to protect you from the spray. As we were putting our capes on, one of the staff told me proudly that the future Queen of England - then Princess Elizabeth - had sailed on the Maid not long before me and my husband. "She sat right where you're sittin' now" she told me "and I helped her put her cape on."

Once on board the boat, a photographer took a picture of us against the backdrop of the Falls. It's a pretty spectacular photo and we were happy to pay how ever many dollars he asked for.

The Maid sailed very close to the falls but I don't remember feeling at all anxious. It was thrilling.

So I was interested to see the news story about a Connecticut man called Russ Glasson who found family photos taken of Niagara Falls in 1969. It was in 1969 that US Army Corps engineers diverted the river away from the American Falls and over the Horseshoe Falls on the Canadian side. The entire river bed ran dry and for five months engineers worked to move rock falls that had blocked up the base of the Falls. A huge part of Niagara Falls ran dry! I looked at the photos with interest even though I had to study them with the special glasses I've got for my poor eyesight. You can see the engineers at work as well as the completely dry river bed.

I talked to my younger daughter about this. She has the photo of me and her father on the Niagara River and she told me that in the background you can clearly see huge rocks at the base of the Falls with the water cascading over them. Since the main rock falls which the engineers were moving fell in 1931 and 1954 the rocks in my photo, taken in 1952, may be from 1931. Or perhaps they're part of the river bed geology that was there for much longer and is still there today.

Anyway, I found Mr Glasson's photographs very interesting - as anyone who's been to Niagara Falls or enjoyed pictures of it probably will. My own photo has a little more personal meaning for me though - especially as I'd just found out I was expecting my first child.