Another Canadian Icon lost, 'Maid of the Mist' Steamboat company loses deal to operate Niagara Falls tours.

"                                                  Maid of the Mist I (ship, 1885)"


Another Canadian Icon lost,  'Maid of the Mist' Steamboat company loses deal to operate Niagara Falls tours.(Yahoo).TORONTO - One of the largest tourist draws in Niagara Falls may not be open this year because the Maid of the Mist Steamboat Company has lost the contract to operate boats in the Niagara Gorge after 165 years.
Maid of the Mist is run by the Maid of the Mist Steamship Company of Niagara Falls, Ontario, but owned by the Glynn family of Lewiston, NY since 1971. Boats are registered in St. Catharines, Ontario.
The first Maid of the Mist was launched in 1846 as a ferry service between the Canadian and American sides, pre-dating by two years the construction of the first Niagara Falls Suspension Bridge at the site. However, with the opening of the suspension bridge, the ferry service lost business, and by 1854, became a tourist attraction instead with the launch of a more luxurious boat. The current captain of the Maid of the Mist is Captain Mark Keith of St. Catharines, Ontario.
The Niagara Parks Commission announced Wednesday it had awarded a 30-year land-lease agreement for boat tour operations in the Niagara Gorge to Hornblower Canada, a California-based company."This is a great day for the Niagara Parks Commission and a great day for the tourism industry in Niagara and across Ontario," chair Janice Thomson said in a release.
However, the Hornblower service isn't scheduled to begin until the spring of 2014 and the Maid of the Mist company isn't sure it can stay in business for this summer's tourist season."As a result of this decision, our business, with a 165 year history of service to tourists from around the world, may soon come to an end," company president Christopher Glynn said in a release.
"The implications of this decision are very complex, and impact on many parties and create many uncertainties, including whether or not a boat tour service will be offered in Niagara Falls in 2012."It's the second government-ordered reversal for the Niagara Parks Commission, which last week agreed it would let American daredevil Nik Wallenda walk a tightrope over the world famous falls this summer.The Maid of the Mist tour boats ferry people from both the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara River to the base of the Horseshoe Falls under separate agreements with New York state and Ontario.The first Maid of the Mist began operating in Niagara Falls in 1846, and the boats have been drawing more than two million passengers annually in recent years.The Maid of the Mist Corp. has a 40-year contract through 2042 with New York state.Sen. Charles Schumer asked Premier Dalton McGuinty to ensure that the Maid of the Mist continue to have access to Canadian docks and storage, saying it would be impossible to build dry docks on the much narrower American side of the river.Read the full story here, more on the history of the ferry here.