On August 6th, 1918, two men were working on a sand barge being towed in the Upper Niagara River. The tug Hassayampa that was doing the towing got stuck on a sand bar, and in the efforts to free it, the towline snapped, and the black steel scow began drifting downstream. Other tugs gave chase, but were not able to throw the crew a line. The men on board, Gustave Lofberg and James Harris, dropped the scow's 6-ton anchor, but the chain broke and the barge's drifting towards the thundering falls continued. Then, the barge ran aground on a shoal 2500 feet from the brink of the Horseshoe Falls.

The five power stations on the river ran their turbines at full speed  to keep the river level as low as possible, while soldiers (guarding the power plants during World War I), firefighters and the U.S. Coast Guard used a cannon, lines and a breeches buoy to set up a rescue from the roof of the Toronto Power Plant. It was gruelling work, and the lines shot to the scow kept tangling. At 3:00 a.m., with the block and tackle twisted halfway out, Niagara Falls Riverman Red Hill volunteered to go out on the breeches buoy and untangle them. Eventually, both Lofberg and Harris were retreived safely (and, contrary to popular rumour, neither man's hair turned white from terror).

The scow has suffered much erosion over the years, but it is still a Niagara Falls landmark in the Niagara River above the falls.