Last on Sacramento River : Ferryboat Travels Daily Back to the Gold Rush

During the Gold Rush days, steamboats with names like Martha Jane and Benecia chugged up and down the Sacramento River carrying passengers and freight from San Francisco to Red Bluff and back, stopping off at loading docks and ferry stations along the banks.

The transcontinental railroad, with its speed, efficiency and relative low cost meant the end of the upper Sacramento River as a commerce center. Bridges replaced the ferries. Today, only pleasure boats or houseboats ply the river.

But a small scrap of the time when Marysville was known as New Mecklenburg is preserved in the very last ferry on the Sacramento River located at Princeton, nine miles north of Colusa.

100-Yard Trip

In a small control room filled with strains of Johnny Cash coming over a portable radio, “Captain John” Harroun pulls a lever that awakens a 10-horsepower electric motor and the 90-foot ferry leisurely moves the 100 yards from one river bank to the other. Then he strolls out to the cars parked on the ferry platform, smiles greetings and exchanges bits of conversation with farmers, students commuting to or from California State University, Chico, or the occasional tourist.

On the west bank is Princeton, with 400 residents and one general store--on the opposite shore is Road 67 leading to Oroville, Biggs, Gridley and Chico.

The first recorded map containing the Princeton ferry was filed in 1902, said Gary Plunkett of the Colusa County road commissioner’s office. At that time, it was the most northern of six Sacramento River ferries in the county. Eddie’s Ferry at Grand Island just south of Grimes was the most southern, Plunkett said. Ferries also were established at the present Colusa Bridge in 1874 and at the present Meridian Bridge sometime before 1902.

But Harroun said that he and many other Princeton residents believe their ferry dates back to 1848. The present ferry boat, operated with overhead cables and large pulleys, was built in 1950 after the previous one sank, Harroun said. It carries about 200 cars a day, with a maximum of six at one time. It has two speeds, Harroun said--full out and stop.

A small plaque secured on the wall of the control room reads, “Marriages performed by the captain of this vessel are good for the duration of this voyage only.” The trip lasts 2 minutes and 50 seconds. The ferry goes back and forth from 6 a.m. to midnight seven days a week, including holidays, Harroun said, and runs up a utility bill of $230 per month. Colusa and Glenn counties split the cost of maintaining the ferry.

The closest bridge to the north is four miles away at Butte City, and 15 miles south of Princeton is the Colusa Bridge.

15-Minute Savings

Regular customers of the ferry can save about 15 minutes of driving time, Harroun said. Swallows constantly flutter around the ferry, gliding a few yards over the water and then returning to nests in the wooden braces between the platform and the tanks of the boat. Their only mobile home in the state, Harroun said with a chuckle.

A rice warehouse stands next to the ramp of the ferry. The large garage-type doors lining the river side of the warehouse are reminiscent of the buzzing trade center this spot once was, when grain was loaded onto barges there. And though times have changed dramatically since 1846 when the first recorded steamboat trip was made by a Dr. Robert Semple, heading to the Colusa area during travels from the north, the Princeton Ferry is a constant reminder of life on the river in a bygone era.