OLD FERRIES IN THIS AREA
Back around the turn of the century and for twenty five years thereafter, there were six ferries operating at one time or another in our immediate vicinity.
The two most historic were the old Barry Ferry and the Thomas B. Seaton Ferry, both of which were established before 1900. The others were the Sam Seaton, or Grant County Ferry, the Sam Seaton gas powered launch which was located above Plum Point, and the Covington and Christianson Ferries at Old Plum.
The Barry Ferry, also known as the Steveson Ferry, was established in 1894 by the government. It was used to ferry supplies, commodities, and government officials to the reservation for the Indians. Early ranchers also used it for moving cattle to the reservation for summer grazing.
It was located across the river from the boat ramp near Belvedere. The Okanogan County landing is still above water, and can be seen from the ramp. In 1903 Sam Steveson, a homesteader living on the bar acquired it and converted it to a cable ferry.
The Tom Seaton Ferry was established in 1899 when the south half of the reservation was opened to mining. It carried freighters, miners, and packers as well as huge quantities of mining machinery, all headed for the mines in the Moses Mining District in the Nespelem area. It was located in the canyon at the end of the Spring Canyon National Park (?). All traces of the ferry landings are now under water but Tom's old road leading to the ferry can still be seen meandering down the steep hillside above what is now the Harry Sharr ranch.
http://maps.google.com/?ll=47.92983,-118.93404&spn=0.013515,0.031886&t=m&z=15&vpsrc=6
(In satellite view an old road can be seen just across the canyon from the E. Spring Canyon Rd.)
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The next ferry was Sam Seaton's power craft. It was established in 1912 just above Plum Point and served the Swawilla Basin area. Sam also delivered mail to that area.
These three ferries were busy when the reservation was opened to white homesteaders in 1916. The Tom Seaton and Barry Ferries were still in use when the dam was being built.
In 1920 Sam Seaton came down to take over the little ranchers scow at the damsite. This story is told by Helen Rinker in her Sam Seaton Story.
Also in 1920 and back upriver at what is now Plum Point, Henry Covington put in another cable ferry and in 1024, Jim Christianson put in another one.
The Plum Ferries, according to Sam Seaton, who furnished most of the material for this article in interviews before his death in 1971, were put in with an eye to the illegal liquor traffic during the prohibition days. Most of this traffic, however, crossed on the Wild Goose and Hopkins ferries.
Christianson soon abandoned his ferry and moved to Wilbur. Anyone who could operate it then crossed free. The passenger would tie it up on the other side and it stayed there until someone wanted to cross back. This soon put Covington out of business.
The next ferry was located at Hopkins' Crossing about five miles below the mouth of the Nespelem River, and was put in by Rod Hopkins in 1919.
The first Hopkins Ferry was a barge which had been purchased from Walter Jones who had used it at the mouth of the Spokane. A little later Rod put in a cable ferry. Mrs. Adis Claghorn remembers crossing the old row ferry with two tons of potatoes on their wagon which were to be sold in Nespelem.
The Pendell Ferry was located about six miles above the "Wild Goose" Ferry. It was a row ferry and was operated by George B. Cooley in 1912. Marie Pendell Heller says that a man named Kildeer ran it until 1916 when her uncle, Willis Pendell, purchased it and converted it to a cable ferry. Later it was taken over by Jack Pendell. This ferry broke loose in 1925 while loaded with two men and a band of sheep. It hung up in Box Canyon which is now covered by lake Rufus Woods. It was later sold to E. M. Seibert for service at Pateros.
According to Sam Seaton, the old ferries were always put in at Indian crossings. "The Indians knew where the current was right and they taught the early ferrymen how to read the rocks" he said. "If the stones were caught on both shores with flat sides facing downriver, then the current was right and was the same from shore to shore."
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We had much harder winters then than we do now and it was not unusual for a ferry to freeze in the ice. When this happened the traffic simply crossed on the ice with the driver walking ahead of his team keeping a sharp eye out for thin spots.
Occasionally a ferry would break loose and drift downriver until it caught on a bar. It often took six to ten teams to tow them back.
Cattle or horses to be crossed were loaded with as many as the ferry could carry and the others were jumped in to follow. Wild horses often had to be tied to the ferry and towed across.
Fares for the ferries ran from ten cents a head for stock to $2.50 for a loaded wagon with two teams. A buggy or hack with one team was $1.50. Sam also told of the time the old Hopkins Ferry broke loose with its load of sheep and two men. As it drifted downriver, the men waved at the people they passed on shore knowing full well that the ferry would soon get caught and that, even as they passed, their neighbors would start to get the teams ready to come after them.
Virginia Beck
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THE MONUMENT IN THE SAGE
About six miles north of Coulee Dam, the little village of Belvedere squats on the southern edge of several miles of nothing but sage brush, alkali flats, and an assortment of ancient gray boulders.
The gray of the sage and the gray of the boulders blend to such an extent that it is almost impossible to tell where one begins and the other leaves off. The highway traveler, if he should even bother to glance out across the lonely sage, would have no way of knowing that one boulder is any different from any other.
But one is different. Not in size, nor in shape, but because it stands as a marker for the location of a tragic airplane crash which occurred at this very spot over thirty years ago.
There are no guideposts and no trails leading out to it, and unless the hunter knows where it is he would find it only by accident, and then probably, only after hours of searching.
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It stands about a mile north of Belvedere and approximately a half mile off the highway to the right. It is, by a rough estimate about four feet tall and three feet wide. One side has been worn flat by centuries of rain, wind and sand. It is on this flat side that a bronze marker, to the memory of the flyer who lost his life at this spot, has been mounted. Inscribed on the marker is this simple legend:
IN MEMORY OF
THOMAS DOUGLAS STIMSON
April 26, 1931
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A Pioneer
In Northwestern Aviation
The Wibur Register, under the dateline of April 30, 1931, carries the only account to be found locally of the tragedy. It states that Thomas Douglas Stimson, an experienced birdman, was on his way from Hellgate to his home in Seattle. He had bought a lamb from a rancher at Hellgate and was taking it home as a pet for his children. Experts who went to the scene concluded that the lamb had caused the crash.
It is evident, they said, that the lamb became unmanageable and caused the wreck. The lamb's head was wedged between the controls of the ship and thus could have made it impossible for the driver to prevent the wreck.
Whether the lamb was the cause of the crash or whether it wasn't, there will always be many unanswered questions. For instance: Men who remember the old fashioned airship say that the head of the lamb could not have been driven into the controls except by terrific force, such as the crash would have been. They believe that if the lamb had anything to do with the crash then it would have had to have been the cord that was found around its neck. They feel that some how the string may have become entangled in the controls.
Another question that arises is why the plane was up in this area to begin with. If the flyer was on his way to Seattle from Hellgate, then he was either off his course, or else he had another reason for being this far north. A local resident, who was aboard the old Steveson Ferry at the time recalls that the plane was flying low enough for the pilot to lean out and wave. The plane crossed the river, still flying north, and only moments later crashed int o the sagebrush. Just above the crash site lies a fairly flat stretch of land. If we were to assume that the pilot knew he was in trouble, and was attempting to reach this flat, then the assumption would immediately contradict itself because he could just as easily have landed in one of the fields on the Steveson place. Logical reasoning then leads to the belief that for some unknown reason the pilot was unable to bring the plane up from the river into the high area above Belvedere.
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Another question is: Who walked around out through the sagebrush until they found this one special old gray boulder and who mounted the bronze plaque in the center of it. There is one thing that we do know however, and that is that some one cared enough to take the time to gather a number of smaller rocks and lay them in a perfect circle around the monument.
Virginia Beck
Published in The Star
February 3, 1966
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