Sir Casimir Gzowski was the first chairman of the Commission for the establishment of the Queen Victoria Niagara Falls Park, forerunner of the present Niagara Parks Commission. During his eight years chairmanship (1885-1893), he was largely responsible for the original planning of the famed Niagara Parks System we enjoy today.

Sir Casimir also engineered the construction of the International Railway Bridge across the Niagara River, linking Fort Erie with Buffalo (1870-1873), considered to be one of the most gigantic engineering works on the North American continent up to that time.

Gzowski was born March 5, 1813, in St. Petersburg, Russia, of Polish parentage. He was exiled to the United States in 183,3 for his part in the Warsaw rebellion against Russia. In 1838 he became both a lawyer and a U.S. citizen; married Maria Beebe the next year. In 1841 lie settled in Toronto as an engineer in the Canadian Department of Public Works and became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1846. He engineered the construction of the Great Western Railroad from Toronto to Sarnia.

Gzowski was made a Colonel and Aide-de-Camp to Queen Victoria in 1879 and was knighted in 1890.

He died in Toronto, Ontario, August 24, 1898, aged 85 years.