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Sam Patch and the other Niagara Falls Jumpers

Copy of a handbill from a play about the famous Sam Patch. The first person ever to go over Niagara Falls and live to tell about it was a man named Sam Patch, who accomplished the feat in October 1829.  He earned the nickname the Yankee Leaper as a result.  His jump was part of a campaign to turn the Falls into a more popular tourist attraction.  It worked, too: a crowd of about 10,000 gathered to watch the 22-year-old Patch do it. Patch promised a second jump because his first one was delayed due to technical problems—the ladder he was to climb out to the middle of the falls on broke and had to be repaired—and bad weather pushed his jump back to 4:00 in the afternoon.  His second jump saw conditions that allowed the jump and was much better attended, turning Patch into a household name. Handbill from Sam Patch's final jump, 1829.  This jump was not done as well as others. Patch had already achieved a certain amount of fame for jumping off of waterfalls.  T