No Connection : Shutdown of Ferry Tears the Social Fabric of Two Hamlets

The century-old ebb and flow of life hereabouts along the Sacramento River has been disrupted; the homespun fabric of commerce and social intercourse between ordinary folks has been torn.

When the historic Princeton Ferry was shut down by Glenn County officials because of financial and safety considerations in July, a 130-year-old connection between the east and west banks of the river was broken.

Officials of Glenn and neighboring Colusa County now say they are optimistic that the Princeton Ferry service may be restored, but that is not definite and, if it happens, it won’t be before next spring or summer.

Meanwhile, residents on both sides of the river are angry that the ferry service was discontinued at all and say that they have been needlessly made to suffer.

On the west side of the river is the hamlet of Princeton, population 405, located in Colusa County about 80 miles north of Sacramento. There’s a post office here; a school; a county library branch; a firehouse; a pretty, white-frame Methodist church, some old homes with big, comfortable-looking screened-in porches.

There’s Alderson Ranch Supply, a grocery store, Parker’s Princeton Mobil station, the closed and for-sale Rustic Rooster restaurant and there’s the Duck Club Bar, with a big painting next to the doorway of Daisy Duck in a come-hither pose. That’s about it.

On the east side of the river in Glenn County is the even smaller community of Afton, with its general store and scattered farmhouses.

To outsiders, the Princeton Ferry service, which had united the two sides of the river with one vessel or another since the 1850s, may not seem like much. The current ferry boat is a clunky-looking 60 feet of ugly sheet steel and metal drums that creaked on electric-powered cables a mere 100 yards or so back and forth across the river. Without the ferry, it’s only 12 miles around by road and bridge through Butte City to the north.

But to the people here, the Princeton Ferry has been a way of life, and the 12 miles it takes to go around by bridge is an economic, social and psychological barrier.

An average of 150 to 200 vehicles a day crossed the river on the ferry: cars, pickups and trucks, not to mention pedestrians, bicyclists and horses. One-third of the 180 pupils who attend school in Princeton live on the east side of the river and many used the ferry.

Farmers used it to get back and forth across the river to work land on both sides or to make purchases at Alderson Ranch Supply. People used the ferry to get back and forth to jobs or to go shopping, attend social functions and civic meetings. Local people sometimes made half a dozen or more round trips a day on the ferry. Traveling salesmen from other areas used it too as a shortcut on their routes, and tourists from all over the country stopped by for a ride.

And best of all, perhaps, in a world where little else is, the Princeton Ferry was free.

Local citizens, who have formed a committee to save the ferry, say the shutdown has not only disrupted social functions, such as attending school events and civic meetings, but has, since the July 1 closure, caused economic losses on both sides of the river.

Losing Business

Gene Mendes, owner of Alderson Ranch Supply, said that he is losing the business of farmers on the east side of the river and projects gross sale losses of $71,000 a year.

Andy Zwald, a farmer on the east side of the river, confirmed that Mendes is losing substantial sales from his farming operation alone.

“We were figuring it out here the other day,” said Zwald, as he stood beside a tractor in a melon field by the river. “We probably spent $800 to $1,000 a month over there at harvest time. And I guess we haven’t bought more than a set of windshield wipers there in the last three months.”

Although it may be no closer, farmers seem to feel it is more convenient to buy parts and supplies in the town of Colusa than to drive around and cross the bridge to Princeton.

David Parker, owner of Parker’s Princeton Mobil station, said his business has fallen off 40% since the ferry closed.

Jan McMills, a secretary and farm wife who lives with her family on the east side of the river, said that in commuting to her own job, her husband’s job and in taking her child to school and attending social and civic functions in Princeton, the closure of the ferry caused the family to travel an extra 1,475 miles in one month alone.

Wear and Tear

“That is over $300 in gas and wear and tear on our vehicles, not to mention the value of our time,” she said in a written statement to county officials protesting the ferry closure.

The Princeton Ferry didn’t begin as a county public service.

It was started between 1854 and 1858 as a commercial operation by Dr. Almond Lull, a physician and farmer, according to Eleze Coffman of the Colusa County Historical Records Commission, who has spent 10 years researching the subject.

Lull’s ferry, powered by the river current, was subsequently replaced by a vessel with a gasoline motor and finally by an electric-powered cable system.

Coffman, who is trying to gain state historic landmark status for the ferry site, said it is the oldest such river crossing in California and the only electric-powered ferry in the state.

Glenn and Colusa counties took over the operation as a public service around the turn of the century and, except for interruptions for repairs and seasonal shutdowns because of high water, the ferry had been operating ever since.

Gasoline Taxes

The two counties shared the $80,000 annual cost of running the service, with Glenn County actually operating the ferry. The funds came out of the counties’ shares of state gasoline taxes.

But counties, especially those in farm country, have come upon tough economic times. So this year at budget time, Glenn County, citing the need for about $150,000 worth of safety repairs--to be shared by the two counties--pleaded economic hardship and abruptly shut down the service.

“We arrived at the point, with the tight financial budgets, where we could no longer support the ferry,” said Glenn County Supervisor Jim Mann. “And the main point was, we had been turning our head on the safety of the people crossing the river.”

Local residents were outraged, maintaining that the county was in effect closing a public road and charging that safety concerns were a red herring to justify cutting the service to save money.

Residents are so anxious to restore the ferry service that most of them have expressed willingness to pay a toll if necessary, McMills said.

Full Responsibility

But a toll may not be necessary. Officials in the two counties say they may be close to an agreement that would call for Glenn County to pay $30,000 a year for five years to purchase a new ferry boat, with Colusa County assuming full responsibility for operating and maintaining the service.

Still, that is uncertain and a couple of seasons away.

“I hope we don’t get people’s hopes up,” said Colusa County Supervisor Bill Waite. “Because if we start now, we still won’t have a ferry until next spring. . . . It would probably be eight months.”

In the meantime, the homely little Princeton Ferry boat remains docked at the west bank, listing forlornly as the river rolls south between the two communities.