If I were to say the words “Niagra Falls,” what would be the first thing that came to your mind?

Can I venture a guess? If the word “water” wasn’t your first choice, I think it’s pretty safe to assume it was a close second.

That’s because, even if you’ve never been in person, Niagra Falls hails as one of the most famous (and, according to its website, “most Instagrammed”) landmarks in the United States. And, if you know nothing else about it, you still more than likely know that it’s a large waterfall.

In fact, what we know as Niagra Falls is actually three waterfalls: the largest and most famous Horseshoe Falls, which straddles the international border between United States and Canada; American Falls; and Bridal Veil Falls, both of which lie within the United States. Created by the Niagara River, a body of water which formed over 12,000 years ago when Lake Erie carved a channel into Lake Ontario, and so-named from the word “Onguiaahra,” from the Iroquois people who originally settled there, the combined falls have the highest flow rate of any waterfall in North America. In fact, more than 5.9 million cubic feet of water goes over the crest of the falls every minute.

Its magnificence and power is well-known through the world. “When I felt how near to my Creator I was standing,” Charles Dickens wrote in 1842, “the first effect, and the enduring one—instant lasting—of the tremendous spectacle, was Peace.” Visits are often touted as religious or spiritual experiences, so awesome is the raw power of God’s creation on display in the rushing, roaring falls. It seems indestructible. Immovable. Unstoppable.

Until, shockingly, on this day back in 1903 when it just…wasn’t.

Now, the falls had stopped before. Sometime around midnight on March 30, 1848, the Niagara River “ran dry from lake to lake.” For more than a day, no water flowed over the Falls. Work ceased at factories and mills along the river. Churches were crowded with penitents who feared the world was coming to an end.

It wasn’t of course. Millions of tons of ice had simply become lodged at the mouth of the Niagara River at Lake Erie, blocking the channel completely. The dam held the water for approximately thirty hours until the wind shifted and the pent-up weight of the water broke, forcing the Niagara River to flow again.

But on March 22, 1903, there was no ice. There was no dam.

And yet still, there was no water.

The most powerful waterfall in the United States was nothing more than a trickle.

The cause?

Drought.

As powerful as water was, the strength of the sun and lack of precipitation was stronger. And the falls that had seemed at once so powerful withered under their strain.

Eventually, rain began to fall and water began to flow again, returning the falls to its magnificent state. But seeing these mighty waters stopped for a time is a humbling reminder of just how small we are relative to creation and how even the most seemingly steadfast and immovable forces around us are still no match for the purpose and direction of their Creator.