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Belmont-Columbus Ferry

Mississippi County, Missouri, and Hickman County, Kentucky
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Photos 

Historic postcard

The postcard says, "Mississippi River Ferry between Columbus, Kentucky and Belmont, Missouri. First established in 1825."

This image was submitted by Mark Frazier.

Map 

Facts 

Overview
Lost ferry crossing over the Mississippi River on MO 80/KY 80 between Belmont and Columbus
Location
Mississippi County, Missouri, and Hickman County, Kentucky
Status
No longer in operation
Design
Ferry
Approximate latitude, longitude
+36.76378, -89.11802   (decimal degrees)
36°45'50" N, 89°07'05" W   (degrees°minutes'seconds")
Approximate UTM coordinates
16/310952/4070759 (zone/easting/northing)
USGS topographic map
Arlington
Inventory number
BH 22055 (Bridgehunter.com ID)

Categories 

Ferry (72)
Hickman County, Kentucky (8)
Kentucky (676)
MO 80 (3)
Mississippi County, Missouri (24)
Mississippi River (155)
Missouri (4,533)
Owned by state (9,852)
State line crossing (515)

Update Log 

  • March 8, 2006: Posted postcard scan from Mark Frazier

Sources 

  • Mark Frazier - mfrazier [at] kc [dot] rr [dot] com
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Comments 

Belmont-Columbus Ferry
Posted December 12, 2011, by Al Cyone (al_cyone [at] yahoo [dot] com)

I'm pretty sure this is the ferry I intended to take in 1982 while on a cross-country bicycle trip. When I got to the river some kids playing in a nearby yard told me, "he don't run the ferry no more". So I headed south to see if the ferry at Hickman was still running. It didn't look any more promising (as the picture shows) but it was, in fact, running, much in the way, it seems, the Belmont-Columbus ferry used to run. You signaled the ferry by flipping the sign to the white side.

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Belmont-Columbus Ferry
Posted August 14, 2008, by John Koski (koski [at] att [dot] net)

I took this ferry in 1970 from MO side. The road deteriorated from paved to gravel as it got closer the Mississippi. The last half mile was just a dirt trail. I thought there was a bridge here, and when the road ended at the gravel river bank there was nothing. As I turned around to go back, an operator of a front end loader stacking logs called out to wait for the ferry. I looked harder, and sure enough, on the other side was the ferry unloading. When it came across, it jammed it's ramp into the gravel bank, good enough so you could drive on. That saved me a lot of driving.