DOTD For Friday, October 24, 2025

A Drink For Anyone Staring Down A Barrel

Today’s DOTD - Drink Of The Day - is an Old Barrel Cocktail inspired both by the political & economic situation we’re all facing in the U.S. currently, as well as the actions of amateur stunt woman Annie Edson Taylor. On this date in 1901, Ms. Taylor became the first person to survive going over Niagara Falls in a barrel, on purpose. While this may seem like an unusual claim to fame, if you think this is the weirdest thing about Ms. Taylor’s life, you’re not even close.

Annie Edson Taylor was born in 1838 in upstate New York, one of eight children born to a wealthy flour mill owner & his wife. Her life was full of misadventures and unfortunate events. Her father passed away when she was 12, and left the family enough money so they could be comfortable. She went all the way through primary school, and even was able to attend a four year college and become a schoolteacher, a serious career in those days.

While completing her collegiate studies, she met David Taylor, married and had a son, Unfortunately, the child died as an infant, and then her husband Mr. Taylor died shortly thereafter. As a widow she spent her working years bouncing around North America changing locales and jobs often, and ending up in Michigan after bouncing around as far as Mexico City in pursuit of work.

By 1900, Ms. Taylor had fallen upon hard times, having been burned out of her home and being scammed by a preacher. She decided that fame and fortune from being the first person to ride over Niagara Falls in a barrel would be a good way to secure her financial security.

A ride over the falls wouldn’t be the kind of thing that would earn her enduring fame & fortune, but it did pique the curiosity of the press and public. At that time, the only three people known to have gone over the falls had done so by accident - and they didn’t live to tell about it.

So Taylor had a custom oak barrel constructed and padded the interior with a mattress. Two days before her planned ride she sent a cat over the falls in her barrel as a test run. The cat was not interviewed, but survived and certainly used up a few of those nine lives.

On October 24, 1901, her 63^rd birthday, the barrel was put in the water. She climbed in with her lucky pillow, and friends used a bicycle pump ran through a cork to compress the air inside. The barrel was set adrift near the American shore. Lucky for Ms. Taylor, the currents carried it over the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. (All successful attempts to take a trip over the falls have been on that side.) Rescuers reached her barrel shortly after the plunge and found Taylor alive with only a small gash on her head.

The stunt didn’t quite achieve her goals. She briefly earned some money by speaking about the experience but never built wealth. She wrote a memoir and returned to Niagara Falls to sell it. Her manager ran away with her barrel, and most of her savings were used towards private detectives hired to find it. The barrel was eventually located in Chicago, only to be stolen again by a new manager.

She spent her final years posing for photographs with tourists at her souvenir stand, attempting to earn money from the New York Stock Exchange, working as a clairvoyant, and providing “magnetic therapeutic treatments” to local residents in the Niagara Falls area.

Still, when Ms. Taylor was staring down the barrel of a difficult time in her life, she took a leap - literally, over Niagara Falls. In doing so earned her place in history, a nickname - “Queen of the Mist” - and made her a legend that’s been the focus of books, songs, and movies since.

So for all those folks who are staring down the barrel of this difficult time, as we all are, the moral of the story? Prepare well, take that leap, and whatever you do, keep going.

To that idea, let’s raise a glass to the DOTD, the Old Barrel Cocktail, and Ms. Annie Edson Taylor, the “Queen of the Mist.”

Ingredients

Here’s what you’re going to need for this drink: