Visitors to Saint John’s Reversing Falls are expressing their disappointment after arriving to find the site’s tourism centre boarded up.
“When we got out of the car that was the first place I wanted to go, but it’s closed,” said Dennis Tefft, who is visiting the area from Maine.
Tour guides had been stationed at the building for decades, but now the building sits empty with no reopening in sight.
“I love to talk to people. I love to ask questions,” said Maine resident Paula Tefft. “That’s how you find out more about the area.”
“Actually, with a boarded-up building at a wonderful site like this, it is almost a travesty,” said Linda Woods, who is visiting from Florida. “I mean, why would you want to discourage people from stopping here?”
Despite the closure, the Reversing Falls remains one of the most heavily promoted sites in the province. Many visitors are unfamiliar with tides, so they travel to the Reversing Falls with lots of questions. Now, they are leaving with more questions than answers.
“Because the tide changes on a daily basis, so when we got here the last time we didn’t know what time the tide would come in to watch the rapids,” says New Jersey resident Rita Mebane.
“When I saw the boarded-up buildings I thought to myself, hey, wait a second, maybe it’s not happening anymore,” said Connecticut resident Jene Dean.
The city plans to demolish the building and there are no immediate plans to replace it.
There is a $10 million plan in the works to develop the Reversing Falls, but there is no funding in place at the moment. Until then, the site’s future remains uncertain.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron
