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For a long time the gorges along the Kamenice River formed a difficult barrier for the inhabitants of Vysoká Lípa and Mezná on the river's right bank who had to negotiate the journey to the church in Růžová. But the Kamenice was not just a barrier; it was a good source of income. Lumber used to float down the river and the movement of trout and salmon in winter brought a golden age for fishermen.
And then some courageous individuals come up with the idea to go rafting down through the gorges. It seems that five daredevils in 1877 made an insane bet in a pub in Hřensko called “At the Green Tree” and floated down in three rafts from the Dolský Mill to a place known at that time as the “end of the world”. Four-meter long vessels carried their crew unscathed all the way to Hřensko. This laid the foundation for making use of the gorges as a tourist attraction.
Prince Clary-Aldringen brought in Italian specialists under whose leadership 200 workers modified the gorges, with the assistance also of the Mountain Club of Bohemian Switzerland, building floating walkways, bridges, tunnels, foot bridges and a weir. On May 4, 1890, the Tichá Gorge, also called Edmund's Gorge, was opened as well as a restaurant. Service was provided by five small boats on which ferrymen dressed in sailor uniforms used poles to steer, which is still done to this day. The Wild Gorge had to wait eight more years before opening in 1898.
We can get an idea of how popular this attraction was by the written records from the 1920s – 14 boats operated in Edmund's Gorge and 7 in Wild Gorge. Altogether the gorges saw an average of 160,000 visitors per year. Boats were on the river from seven in the morning till dark and strict rules were set: door-to-door peddling was prohibited in the gorges as was begging, commercial photography and posting political flyers.
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