From a very early age, Red was obsessed by both the Niagara River and the power of Niagara Falls and would spend most of his days tossing sticks, cans, rubber tubing and anything else that would float over the falls and along the river rather than attending school.

It was the study of how the various items floated over the precipice of the falls and how they would reappear in the rapids below that proved to be the vital source of knowledge that brought the young Hill much notoriety and international fame later in life.

When Bobby Leach tempted fate by going over the great Horseshoe Falls in his crude steel barrel in 1910, it was Red Hill that retrieved the barrel and extracted the battered but otherwise healthy Leach from the steel conveyance.
Hill again came to the rescue of Leach following his failed attempt to swim the Niagara Gorge in 1920, just ten years after his plunge over the falls.
Following Leach's rescue, Hill climbed into the barrel himself and proceeded down the Niagara Gorge rapids several miles downriver to Queenston, Ontario.
From a very early age, Red was obsessed by both the Niagara River and the power of Niagara Falls and would spend most of his days tossing sticks, cans, rubber tubing and anything else that would float over the falls and along the river rather than attending school.
It was the study of how the various items floated over the precipice of the falls and how they would reappear in the rapids below that proved to be the vital source of knowledge that brought the young Hill much notoriety and international fame later in life.
When Bobby Leach tempted fate by going over the great Horseshoe Falls in his crude steel barrel in 1910, it was Red Hill that retrieved the barrel and extracted the battered but otherwise healthy Leach from the steel conveyance. Hill again came to the rescue of Leach following his failed attempt to swim the Niagara Gorge in 1920, just ten years after his plunge over the falls. Following Leach's rescue, Hill climbed into the barrel himself and proceeded down the Niagara Gorge rapids several miles downriver to Queenston, Ontario.
William "Red" Hill Sr.