The Fred Helie Collection

Long before "Big Becky" started tunneling under the City of Niagara Falls in 2006, similar work was done for the tunnels for the Beck 2 Power Station.

Local resident Fred Helie worked on the Sir Adam Beck II Power Plant Construction project beginning in 1950. During that time he took numerous photographs during all phases of construction. His unique collection of photographs were donated to the Niagara Falls Public Library, by his family after his death. Luckily for us, he made notations on nearly all of the photographs

All of the images have been digitized and can be viewed at the Historic Niagara Digital Collections at the following link:

http://www.nflibrary.ca/nfplindex/results.asp?action=browse&q=349&key=85376

We can only marvel at the underground shots. Keep in mind, this was the fifties, there was no technological marvel such as "Big Becky". His images cover the gamit from the engines, to the trucks, to the construction equipmen, to the tunnels themselves. They offer an insight into the life of a construction worker in the 1950s.