Colorado River Ferry Crossing

Duane's take

Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to do it justice. Now, out here in Runnels County, there was a stretch of the Colorado River that folks needed to cross, and for a good while, the only way across was a ferry. This was back in the 1880s, when the Ballinger to San Angelo Road was the road to be on, and that river wasn't asking anybody's permission to sit right in the middle of it.

So a ferry it was. Now, the county court wasn't about to let things get chaotic. They fixed the rates themselves, and let me tell you, they thought of everything.

One cent. One single cent for a head of livestock. You could send a cow across the Colorado River for a penny.

On the other end of the scale, if you were rolling up with six horses and a full wagon, that would run you one dollar. One dollar. Whether that felt like a bargain or a small fortune probably depended on how bad you needed to get to San Angelo.

The ferry did its job, crossing travelers and their animals and their wagons back and forth across that water, year after year through the decade. But nothing lasts forever out on the Texas road, and 1888 is when this particular story found its ending. That's the year they built the first bridge, cedar and pine wood, right there at the crossing.

The moment that bridge went up, the ferry's work was done. Just like that, a whole era of one-cent crossings and six-horse wagons floating over the Colorado came to a close. The river didn't change.

The road didn't move. They just finally put something permanent over it.

What the marker says

Used in 1880s for travel on Ballinger - San Angelo Road. Rates fixed by the county court ranged from one cent for a head of livestock to one dollar for 6 horses and a wagon. Ferry was in use until building of first cedar and pine wood bridge, 1888.