Cave-In-Rock Ferry

Last updated
Cave-In-Rock Ferry
Cave-in-Rock Ferry closeup.jpg
LocaleIllinois 1.svg IL 1 in Cave-In-Rock, Hardin County, Illinois and Elongated circle 91.svg KY 91 in Crittenden County, Kentucky
Waterway Ohio River
Transit type Passenger/automobile ferry
Operator Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

Illinois Department of Transportation

Lonnie Lewis (ferry boat owner)
Began operation1803 [1]
No. of lines1
No. of vessels1
No. of terminals2

The Cave-In-Rock Ferry is one of four passenger ferry services that cross the Ohio River into the U.S. state of Kentucky. It connects Illinois Route 1 in Cave-In-Rock, Hardin County, Illinois to Kentucky Route 91, 10.6 miles north of Marion, Kentucky. It is the only public river crossing available between the Brookport Bridge at Paducah, Kentucky and the Shawneetown Bridge at Old Shawneetown, Illinois.

Contents

History

In October 1829, the county court of Livingston County, Kentucky granted James Ford a franchise to operate a ferry. [2]

Since 1994, Lonnie Lewis of Lonnie Lewis Inc., doing business as Cave in Rock Ferry Company, has operated the ferry. [3] [4] Operation is jointly funded by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) and the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT). [3]

The Loni Jo is the current vessel that traverses the river. [5] As of July 2022, 500 vehicles cross daily. [3] The ferry operates 16 hours from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. [3]

Commuters use the ferry to avoid the approximately 35-mile detour to the nearest bridge in Shawneetown. [4] The ferry is a tourist attraction that connects the Shawnee National Forest and Cave-In-Rock in Illinois and Amish country in Crittenden County, Kentucky. [6] Farmers use the service to transport tractors and agricultural equipment. [6] [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pope County, Illinois</span> County in Illinois, United States

Pope County is the southeasternmost county in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it had a population of 3,763, making it the second-least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Golconda. The county was organized in 1816 from portions of Gallatin and Johnson counties and named after Nathaniel Pope, a politician and jurist from the Illinois Territory and State of Illinois.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hardin County, Illinois</span> County in Illinois, United States

Hardin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 3,649, making it the least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Elizabethtown. Hardin County is located in the part of the state known as Little Egypt. Hardin County was named for Hardin County, Kentucky, which was named in honor of Colonel John Hardin, an officer in the American Revolutionary War and the Northwest Indian War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gallatin County, Illinois</span> County in Illinois, United States

Gallatin County is a county located in the U.S. state of Illinois. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 4,946, making it the third-least populous county in Illinois. Its county seat is Shawneetown. It is located in the southern portion of Illinois known locally as Little Egypt. Located at the mouth of the Wabash River, Gallatin County, along with neighboring Posey County, Indiana, and Union County, Kentucky form the tri-point of the Illinois-Indiana-Kentucky Tri-State Area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave-In-Rock, Illinois</span> Village in Illinois, United States

Cave-In-Rock is a village in Hardin County, Illinois, United States. Its principal feature and tourist attraction is nearby Cave-In-Rock, on the banks of the Ohio River. In 1816, the earliest known permanent white settlers arrived and started building a town near the cave. The town was originally known as Rock and Cave, Illinois, with a post office under this name. On October 24, 1849, the town was officially renamed Cave-In-Rock. Cave-In-Rock was incorporated as a village in 1901. The population was 318 at the 2010 census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carrsville, Kentucky</span> City in Kentucky, United States

Carrsville is a home rule-class city beside the Ohio River in Livingston County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population was 50 at the 2010 census, declining from 64 as of 2000. It is part of the Paducah, KY-IL Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is situated just west of the junction of where Buck Creek empties into the Ohio River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Illinois</span> Region of Illinois in the United States

Southern Illinois, also known as Little Egypt, is a region of the U.S. state of Illinois comprising the southern third of the state, principally south of Interstate 70. Part of downstate Illinois, it is bordered by the two most voluminous rivers in the United States: the Mississippi below its connection with the Missouri River to the west and the Ohio River to the east and south, with the Wabash as a tributary.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Collins River</span> River in Tennessee, United States

The Collins River is a 67-mile-long (108 km) stream in the east-central portion of Middle Tennessee in the United States. It is a tributary of the Caney Fork, and is part of the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi watersheds. The river drains the scenic Savage Gulf area, located just below the river's source, and empties into Great Falls Lake at Rock Island State Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">U.S. Route 68</span> Highway in the United States

U.S. Route 68 is a United States highway that runs for 560 miles (900 km) from northwest Ohio to Western Kentucky. The highway's western terminus is at US 62 in Reidland, Kentucky. Its present northern terminus is at Interstate 75 in Findlay, Ohio, though the route once extended as far north as Toledo. US 68 intersects with US 62 three times during its route.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">NY Waterway</span> Ferry company

NY Waterway, or New York Waterway, is a private transportation company running ferry and bus service in the Port of New York and New Jersey and in the Hudson Valley. The company utilizes public-private partnership with agencies such as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, New Jersey Transit, New York City Department of Transportation, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority to provide service and maintain docking facilities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transportation in Virginia</span> Overview of land sea and air transport systems in Virginia

Transportation in the Commonwealth of Virginia is by land, sea and air. Virginia's extensive network of highways and railroads were developed and built over a period almost 400 years, beginning almost immediately after the founding of Jamestown in 1607, and often incorporating old established trails of the Native Americans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Ford (pirate)</span> American pirate (1775–1833)

James Ford, born James N. Ford, also known as James N. Ford Sr., the "N" possibly for Neal, was an American civic leader and business owner in western Kentucky and southern Illinois, from the late 1790s to mid-1830s. Despite his clean public image as a "Pillar of the Community", Ford was secretly a river pirate and the leader of a gang that was later known as the "Ford's Ferry Gang". His men were the river equivalent of highway robbers. They hijacked flatboats and Ford's "own river ferry" for tradable goods from local farms that were coming down the Ohio River.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lusk's Ferry, Illinois</span>

Lusk's Ferry was a place where pioneers crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky into Illinois. Some sources say that Golconda, Illinois was once called "Lusk's Ferry". Others say that the name properly refers to the place across the River, in Livingston County, Kentucky.

Lusk's Ferry Road was an early road in Illinois that provided an overland connection between the main settlement, Fort Kaskaskia, on the Mississippi River, and Lusk's Ferry, an important crossing point on the Ohio River. The overland route afforded an alternative to the river route, which required a difficult trip upstream on the Mississippi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave-in-Rock State Park</span> State park in Illinois, United States

Cave-In-Rock State Park is an Illinois state park, on 204 acres (0.83 km2), in the town of Cave-in-Rock, Hardin County, Illinois, in the United States. The state park contains the historic Cave-In-Rock, a landmark of the Ohio River. It is maintained by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kentucky Route 70</span> State highway in Kentucky, United States

Kentucky Route 70 (KY 70) is a long east-east state highway that originates at a junction with U.S. Route 60 (US 60) in Smithland in Livingston County, just east of the Ohio River. The route continues through the counties of Crittenden, Caldwell, Hopkins, Muhlenberg, Butler, Edmonson, Barren, Barren, Metcalfe, Green, Taylor, Casey, Pulaski, Lincoln and back into Pulaski again to terminate at a junction with US 150 near Maretburg in Rockcastle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sturdivant Gang</span>

The Sturdivant Gang was a multi-generational, family gang of counterfeiters, whose criminal activities took place over a fifty-year period, from the 1780s, in Connecticut and Massachusetts, with one branch of the family going to Tennessee via Virginia and a second family branch going to Ohio and finally settled on the Illinois frontier, between the 1810s to 1830s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Shawneetown Bridge</span> Bridge in Illinois and Union County, Kentucky

The Earle C. Clements Bridge, commonly known as the Shawneetown Bridge, is a cantilever truss bridge carrying Kentucky Route 56 and Illinois Route 13 across the Ohio River. Clements was a former governor of Kentucky. The bridge connects Old Shawneetown, Illinois, to rural Union County, Kentucky. Opened in 1955, it is the only highway bridge over the Ohio between Paducah, Kentucky, and Evansville, Indiana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta Ferry</span>

The Augusta Ferry is one of four passenger ferry services that cross the Ohio River into the U.S. state of Kentucky. It is operated by the Augusta Ferry Authority, and been in continuous operation since 1797 when the ferry was hand-propelled by John Boude. It connects the communities of Higginsport, Ohio and Augusta, Kentucky, and is the only public river crossing available between the Combs-Hehl Bridge at Cincinnati, Ohio and the William H. Harsha Bridge at Maysville, Kentucky.

Isaiah Luna Potts was infamous in legend and lore for having run a 19th-century Illinois tavern known as "Potts Inn" where numerous crimes including robbery and murder were committed.

References

  1. Mary Thomas Layton (December 1, 2014). "Cave-In-Rock Ferry". The Southern Illinoisan. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  2. "Hardin Co, IL ferry history - McFarlan family". Hardin County Independent. 1939-06-29. p. 16. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Byrne, Shelley (2022-07-11). "Cave-In-Rock Ferry Again Continues Ohio River Service After Last-Minute Deal". The Waterways Journal. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  4. 1 2 Pensoneau, Liz (1998-09-01). "Our Natural Resources: News Briefs". www.lib.niu.edu. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  5. Payne, Aaron (2022-09-20). "Once numerous, the few remaining ferry boats on the Ohio River carry on". WOUB Public Media. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  6. 1 2 Byrne, Shelley (2020-06-26). "Contract Dispute Could Disrupt Cave-In-Rock Ferry Service". The Waterways Journal. Retrieved 2023-10-12.
  7. "This summer's temporary ferry at Shawneetown is reminder of region's rich history". The Gleaner. 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2023-10-12.