Scenic water travel helped put the word “gay” into the “gay 90’s,” perhaps the golden age for lake and river boating for group picnics and parties. Here, the steam yacht Huntress is seen offloading a group of straw-hatted merry-makers at the foot of Ferry Street in 1896. Described in an 1890 Buffalo Express account as “well known to be the finest steamer on the river,” the Huntress was one of several ferries that transported excursionists to lake and river destinations in the summer.

Originally the property of the McComb House on Grand Island, later known as the Island Club, it eventually became the property of the Fix Brothers of Grand Island. The wily brothers, according to a 1969 recollection in the Buffalo Courier-Express, “made a great deal of Niagara River history, most of it happy and hilarious, most of it legal, and (in Prohibition times) some of it illegal.” The opening of the Peace Bridge in 1927 and Grand Island Bridge in 1935 brought predictions of extinction for Buffalo’s ferry network, but ferry service to Fort Erie and Grand Island actually survived until 1951. The Queen City Bike Ferry, introduced in 2015, may yet herald a return of this golden age.

Image courtesy of The Buffalo History Museum. Used by permission.