The Spring

Monahinga — The Living Water of the Seneca 

For centuries before the arrival of the French, the Seneca drank from a spring hidden in the oak forest of Isle de Grande and called it Monahinga — the Living Water.  

It rises silently from the earth in a circular stone basin, clear and cold, sheltered beneath ancient white oaks whose branches once formed a cathedral over the island.  

In the winter of 1679, when La Salle’s men were sick and starving during the Niagara portage, Seneca guides led them through the forest to this spring.  

They drank. They recovered. They survived to build the Griffon.  

Long after the French vanished, the spring remained.  

Traders, hunters, and later settlers spoke of a hidden water that healed the body and prolonged life.  

Today, Monahinga still flows.

“Arriving at a spot where a spring of water welled from the ground, Go-ya-wa called it Mo-na-hin-ga and bade us drink. It was a most refreshing draught and a few moments later, I felt relieved of my distress.”

— René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle (quoted in Rindge, “Living Water of the Indians Dies,” 1940s Buffalo newspaper)