Paul's Ponderings
Jun 11,2009 00:00 by Paul B. Hayes
Last week, I took a short trip that also seemed to take me back in time. I had a doctor's appointment in Tompkinsville early last Thursday morning, and wanting company for the trip I invited a friend to ride along with me, with the promise that on the return journey home, we'd take the back roads and cross the Cumberland River on the Turkey Neck Bend Ferry.
I'd been across the river on the ferry a couple of times before, but it had been several years since my last trip, so I was looking forward to the excursion, as was my friend, who had never been on the route. So, after I got out of the doctor's office, we took off down Highway 100, then turned onto KY 214, which is the road that the ferry services. For those of you who have never been on KY 214 and crossed the river on the ferry, it's a very enjoyable trip if you like driving on extremely crooked back roads and going up and down the hills that are the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains. I didn't check the exact mileage of the journey, but it is several miles - 20 or more - before you come out on KY 61 a couple miles north of the Tennessee line. (You can shorten the trip a little by taking Highway 395 when you get into Cumberland County, coming out on KY 61 near Dale Hollow State Park, but I missed the turn, and there are no signs telling you where you're at or where you're going out in the boondocks.)
After we returned, I decided to do a little checking on the ferry, and other ferries in the state. According to a site I pulled up on the Internet, the Turkey Neck Bend Ferry is one of 10 ferries still in operation across the state, and the only one operating on the Cumberland River. The Turkey Neck Bend Ferry is the only means of crossing the Cumberland for a 30-mile stretch, and it is the only ferry owned and operated by the state of Kentucky.
According to the web site, the nine other ferries across the state cross the Ohio, Mississippi, Green and Kentucky rivers. Three ferries cross the Ohio - two in northern Kentucky, the Anderson Ferry that connects Boone County to Hamilton County, Ohio and the Augusta Ferry that connects Bracken County with Brown County, Ohio - and the other is in the western part of the state, connecting Crittenden County to Hardin County, Illinois. I think this ferry has the best name of any - Cave in Rock Ferry.
The Dorena-Hickman Ferry crosses the Mississippi River, connecting Fulton County with Mississippi County, Missouri, and the Valley View Ferry crosses the Kentucky River, connecting Fayette and Jessamine counties.
The remaining four ferries all cross the Green River. The Green River Ferry and the Houchins Ferry are in Edmonson County - the Houchins Ferry near Mammoth Cave - and the Reeds Ferry and Rochester Ferry are in Butler County. I've been on the Valley View Ferry across the Kentucky River and the Houchins Ferry and the Rochester Ferry across the Green, but, like the Turkey Neck Bend Ferry, the trips were all several years ago.
And while I've enjoyed all the trips I've taken on the ferries in Kentucky - they've all been very short rides and we've always made it across without any incidents - there's no comparison to the ferry trip I took several years ago that connected two of the Outer Bank Islands off the coast of North Carolina. That trip was across the Atlantic Ocean, lasted about 45 minutes, and was one that I glad to get off on. The only trouble was, we had to take it back.
One more thing about the Turkey Neck Bend Ferry that points out the inefficiency we often find in governmental operations. The state purchased a new ferry at a cost of around $300,000 (or so I was told) to replace the old ferry, and the new one has been on the river for about a month or so. However, it has yet to be put into service. The reason? The new ferry's ramps for on-loading and offloading vehicles are two short, and the state (or whoever built the ferry) is going to have to spend about $40,000 to fix the problem.
And, so it goes.