In August 1957, twenty-three-year-old Richard Robins, a college student, and his fourteen-year-old sister Doris set out on a car trip from Detroit to Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. They were drawn by the region’s natural beauty, historical tales of the 19th century loggers, Native American folklore and especially the opportunity to visit the picturesque Tahquamenon Falls immortalized in the Longfellow poem, “The Song of Hiawatha”. Neither was aware this trip would change their lives forever.

While admiring Tahquamenon Falls, the second largest waterfall east of the Mississippi, the siblings were suddenly swept over the edge by the powerful, pulsating water. The forty-two-foot-high waterfall had never, to anyone’s knowledge, spared the life of any unfortunate soul caught in its powerful vortex. Richard vividly describes his frantic attempts to survive and rescue his sister as the water pounded and propelled them closer and closer towards certain death on the sharp rocks at the bottom.

Amazingly, they survived the fury of the falls.

Alive, relieved and humbled, Richard and Doris left the Upper Peninsula grateful to return to their normal lives. But it wasn’t to be. Arriving back home they were shocked to discover their brush with death had made news around the world. Tahquamenon Falls had released them but now they found themselves caught in a media whirlpool ravenous for details of their watery escape.

When the pandemonium of press interviews, parades, and honors ended Richard can be forgiven for thinking his extraordinary experience was over. But he was wrong. He details for the first time in "The First Survivors" how the spirits of Tahquamenon Falls weren’t ready to let him go.

In “The First Survivors” Richard describes how an innocent decision to take a short car trip has forever enshrined him and Doris into the tales of Tahquamenon Falls. They literally fall into history.