Humboldt Ferries
H.H. Cousins Launch & Lighters. Undated.
Getting from “here” to “there” has always been a human preoccupation – from caveman days on. The difficulty is compounded when settlements are located around water – rivers, lakes or bays.
The indigenous inhabitants of this area had numerous settlements around Humboldt Bay and our many rivers. At the time, when walking was less convenient, dugout redwood canoes ferried people across the waters.
Euro-Americans, arriving in 1850, soon established larger settlements around the bay and in many river valleys. These were not self-sufficient, however, and economic and social needs demanded frequent interaction. When water intervened, this initially meant using ferries.
The Eel River valley soon supported rich farm holdings, several growing towns and active timber operations. Very soon entrepreneurs began operating ferries to transport people, farm products, merchandise and mail from one side of the Eel River to the other.
Crossing the Eel did pose difficulties. When the water was low, there were stretches that could be forded. But after heavy rains or snowmelt in the mountains, that became impossible. Also, for fairly far up river, the Eel is tidal, and extremely high tides added to the trouble.
Most ferries were guided across the river by cables and powered by the currents assisted by wound windlasses. Tolls charged for the crossing graduated from individual passengers, to wagons, to various livestock.
Many ferries soon came into use along the river, the earliest recorded being 1861 at Singley’s where Fernbridge now stands. Later usage of that ferry was augmented by passengers from the nearby terminus of the Eel River and Eureka Railroad, from which travelers took a stage coach to the ferry landing.
Soon a number of other ferries crossed the river at different points. There was one nearer the mouth of the Eel at Dungan’s and then further south at Metropolitan, East’s, Rio Dell, Shively and other shorter-lived enterprises. The crossing between Rio Dell and Scotia was pivotal in transporting some workers to the Scotia lumber mills. Shively, which lasted longer than most ferry operations, played a notable role in transporting bootlegged liquor during Prohibition.
Most other Eel River ferry operations came to an end after 1911 with the construction of Fernbridge, then the largest cement span in the country. Some local skeptics predicted it would be destroyed by the first flood or other factor that plagued ferries, a prediction that time has proven wrong.
The Eel was not the only local river that required ferry crossings. The Klamath, now spanned by the Douglas Memorial Bridge (with the bear statues) was first crossed by a ferry at Requa. And the still-extant name Martin’s Ferry testifies that the Trinity River was earlier crossed there by a ferry. The bridge that replaced it, not being as impervious to floods as Fernbridge, has had to be replaced several times.
Of course, it wasn’t only rivers that were crossed by ferries. Until construction of the Samoa bridge in 1971, the fastest way to get from towns on the east side of the bay to the lumber and ship building operations on the north peninsula was by ferry. The Cousins and Cogshall launch companies operated a fleet of bay ferries for many years. The one survivor from that fleet, the Madaket (formerly known as the Nellie C.), still travels the bay but does so now in aid of sightseeing and tourism – much the way that nostalgic ferry boats again cross San Francisco Bay despite multiple bridges.
The history of our ferries and other subjects can be found in much greater detail in the archives of the Humboldt County Historical Society - not only the drier details of dates and locations, but also reminiscences of those who traveled that way along with breathless accounts of dramatic ferry accidents. As always, the public is invited to visit the Society at 703 Eighth Street in Eureka.