The Clark Fork Ferry
In 1916 when the drive for a bridge over the Clark
Fork river was nearing an end a reporter wrote
"The Clarkfork river basin affording an easy
grade will in the end be the through road for the
northern part of the state. It is the only feasible
pass for the north."
The reporters conclusion may have
been based on the fact that Lewis and Clark found
this route west a century before a growing community
was looking for a better way to cross the river than
by ferryboat.
The topography of the area left little choice but to
cross over the river when traveling east or west.
This was true well into the 20th century until men
and machinery learned to cope with the rock faces of
the Cabinets. Even today a trip from Heron, Montana
to Clark Fork, Idaho clearly reveals the formations
that gave Clark Fork a part in the history of the
region and a reason for the ferry.
Lalia Moore, in her dictionary of Idaho Place Names
comments that the site (Clark Fork) "seems to
have been used by fur trappers as early as
1809." With them came the beginnings of an
early ferry, if only made of logs lashed together
with some sort of a makeshift platform. In the
absence of records it is reasonable to assume that a
private or toll ferry did operate at Clark Fork,
long before the need for regulation and probably
afterwards as well.
Click on photograph to enlarge
Some records indicate a ferry operating
in 1893. Since that was at least 10 years after the Northern
Pacific came through, it is most likely that there was a
considerable amount of river crossing during the
construction of both the railroad bridge and trackage on
both sides.
A considerable factor in ferry operations here and up stream
was water flow. The Pend d'Oreille Review reported on
December 29, 1916, that "The Clarksfork river handles a
volume of water much larger than the Snake river. At times
during high water, the flow amounts to as much as 94,000
cubic feet per second. The average width of the river is
about 1300 feet. The velocity of the river at certain times
is very large, about eight miles an hour. Due to this it is
necessarily very hazardous to operate a ferry at Clarksfork
at any time and very dangerous and at some times impossible
to operate a ferry at all."
The problem of crossing the river aside, someone had earlier
written that Clark Fork, "It is a good place for both
rich and poor to live." That sort of pride probably
prompted a petition for a free ferry. On May 13, 1904 a bid
was awarded to John Lloyd and John Hagbo for a ferryboat to
cost $275.00.
All photographs have been used with permission of the Bonner County Museum.
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