Starting about 10,000 years ago, deposits from the retreat of the last glacier
diverted the Genesee to its present course. From Rochester to Lake Ontario,
the river drops about 300 feet. Waterfalls occurred as the river met rock
resistant to erosion. This main cataract-the 96-foot High Falls - once called
the Upper Falls - was considered one of the wonders of the American wilderness.
The 67-foot Lower Falls is about one mile downstream, near Driving Park Avenue.
The gorge was created by the upstream migration of these falls.

Rochester schoolchildren know the story of Sam Patch, a 19th century daredevil,
who had conquered Niagara Falls, but jumped from High Falls to his death on Friday
the thirteenth of November, 1829.

By the early 1800s, the Genesee River was supplying the power, initially via
Browns Race, that made Rochester the flour capital of the world. Its commercial
accessibility attracted millers, toolmakers and other settlers. At least nine
of Rochester's two dozen mills were situated on Browns Race. Rochester remained
a flour milling center until the 1880s, when wheat production followed the
migration of farmers to the midwest. The last flour was milled at Browns Race in 1927.