A bootlegger on occasion during the Prohibition,[1] Hill went on to receive a total of four medals in addition to being credited with saving 28 lives and the recovery of 177 accident and suicide victims from the Niagara River just below the Falls.

[2] Hill's reputation grew as a renowned Canadian daredevil in 1930 with a five-hour journey in a 6-foot-long (1.8 m) steel barrel which began just below the falls at the Maid of the Mist boat landing and through the treacherous Niagara lower rapids ending up several miles down stream at Queenston, Ontario.

It was the study of how the various items floated over the precipice of the falls and how they would reappear in the rapids below that proved to be the vital source of knowledge that brought the young Hill much notoriety and international fame later in life.

Following Leach's rescue, Hill climbed into the barrel himself and proceeded down the Niagara Gorge rapids several miles downriver to Queenston, Ontario.

In less than 90 seconds he had entered the mighty Niagara Whirlpool with its extremely strong currents and become trapped as his barrel violently spun in circles for more than three hours.

[4][5] The next day the 42-year-old Hill went back to the whirlpool, retrieved his contraption and continued the final leg of his journey to Queenston, Ontario where he emerged triumphant, with only a few minor cuts and bruises.

In the early part of the century, thousands of tourists would venture out onto the ice bridge that forms in the pool at the base of the falls during extremely cold winters.

Realizing that four people were still on the ice, Red Hill Sr. returned and managed to pull one person, 17 year old Ignatius Roth, to safety and they reached the Canadian side.

[8] Darkness was approaching when the United States Coast Guard mounted their gun on the roof of the Toronto Power House and shot a rope to the scow.

[8] At the time of the rescue, Hill had been home for only a few days after four years of service in France during World War I, where he had been gassed and wounded.

[5] Although he charged a small fee for recovering bodies from the river, he failed to profit from his daredevil escapades because he chose not to sell tickets to the spectators.

Red Hill Sr. died in a Niagara Falls, Ontario hospital from effects of the gassing that he sustained during the First World War.

This barrel was unlike any other, as it was constructed of 13 large inflated inner tubes that were held together by canvas webbing, encased by heavy-gauge fish netting.