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Ice boom, baby

By Christopher Schobert
ice boom
The annual drop of this seven-foot red
ball signifies the first rite of spring.

I’ve always found icy waters to be absolutely terrifying, and I think it might be Lillian Gish’s fault. I have a memory of seeing a still from D.W. Griffith’s Way Down East in an imposing coffee table book as a little boy, and being struck by the utterly frightened look on Gish’s face as she leapt from one jagged piece of ice to another during the film’s famous ice floe sequence. That shot stayed lodged in my noggin until my junior year of college, when, as a Media Study major at U.B., my silent film history class actually watched Way Down East. For its time—1920—the effects were pretty darn good, and I was again reminded of that still from my youth. (Ironically, the waterfall Griffith cuts to is Niagara Falls.)
ice boom
Steel pontoons link to form the ice boom.

So maybe I’m a little apprehensive about ice. But I’m all about preventing ice buildup. (What a segue!) That’s the gist of BoomDays, scheduled from April 13-15. The annual event, marking its fifth anniversary this year, celebrates the removal of the Lake Erie-Niagara River ice boom and the beginning of spring. Leave it to Western New York to turn such a mundane event into a three-day party equipped with all the fixings: history, entertainment, grub.

Perhaps the ice boom itself requires a bit of explanation. Every winter, the New York State Power Authority and Ontario Power Generation join forces in a tag-team effort to prevent ice on the upper Niagara River. Why? Buildup here could impede power production, which is no good for either side of the border. To take care of business, an 8,800-foot-long ice boom of linked steel pontoons is anchored to the bottom of the river by divers at Lake Erie’s outlet to the Niagara River. This allows water to flow downstream, but stops ice from building up. (You can even take a gander at what the Ice Boom looks like at www.nypa.gov/iceboom/default.aspx. The photos are updated every five minutes, perfect for budding Homeland Security junkies looking to keep an eye on things.)

ice boom
The ice boom from above.
BoomDays, then, is a chance to applaud the lifting of the ice boom, and it also calls attention to WNY’s days of yore—the press release refers to “our bustling waterways of days gone by.” In keeping with this theme of historical hosannas, April 13 and 15 feature events at one of the region’s jewels, Old Fort Niagara, while April 13 also features an appearance by “the world’s oldest fireboat,” the E.M. Cotter. What this all adds up to is a pretty unique mixture of past and present, nature, technology (I’m counting the fireworks as technology), live entertainment, and food. Plus, proceeds benefit Buffalo
Riverkeeper and the Just Buffalo Literary Center.

ice boom
Re-enactors at Old Fort Niagara
join in the festivities.
I’ve never been to any of the previous BoomDays extravaganzas, but the concept is utterly lovable, and points to the area’s spirit of not just owning up to our flaws and difficulties—ice-infested waters, lake effect snow, sports defeat—but embracing them as part of our collective character. If, like me, your nightmares often involve standing perilously on ice floes, then BoomDays is a nice way to shout defiance at Mother Nature.


For Spree assistant editor Christopher Schobert, April means the NHL playoffs and butter lambs.


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