RIVER RIDE: FERRYBOATS SAVE MILES, TIME

Two vehicles aboard the Ste. Genevieve-to-Modoc, Ill., ferry began a 10-minute trip across the Mississippi River from the Missouri side.

A sign at the edge of the Mississippi River instructs motorists about the ferry service.

On a fall day in 1923, a ferry on the Mississippi River brought 50 passengers to the Cape Girardeau landing for a day of shopping in the downtown business area.

On the same trip, one automobile and one horse-and-rider was sandwiched in.

The trip from Southern Illinois netted the ferry owner $12 -- 20 cents for each passenger, a buck-and-a-quarter for the car and 75 cents for the horse and rider.

There is no ferry in Cape Girardeau today. The Mississippi River bridge, which opened in 1927, gave travelers another option across the river, and eventually the ferries started disappearing. The A.C. Jaynes Ferry left Cape in 1928 and headed south, where it operated into the 1950s at Helena, Ark.

But three public ferryboats and a number of private ferries are still in existence in Missouri, including one at Ste. Genevieve and another to re-start in August, across the Mississippi between Dorina and Hickman, Ky.

That same 1923 load today would net the operator at least $56 -- a buck each for the walker's round trip, and $6 for the car. No price is immediately available for a horse and rider.

The Ste. Genevieve-to-Modoc, Ill., ferry made its first trip in several days Wednesday. The ferry has been sidelined due to the rising Mississippi River. The Ste. Genevieve Ferry only recently became a public ferry when it was purchased by the New Bourbon Port Authority.

The new Dorena-to-Hickman ferry is also a public ferry, which is being re-established by the Mississippi County Port Authority.

The Dorena-to-Hickman ferry has a 150-year history. It was founded in 1840 and was operated by the same family until closing in 1990.

Ron Crenshaw is looking forward to the re-opening of the "new" Dorena-Hickman ferry Aug. 1.

"The ferry will be a tremendous economic asset to this area," said Crenshaw, director of the Mississippi County Port Authority. "It will help the entire tri-state area in terms of jobs and tourism."

The ferry ride will be about 20 minutes. "It currently takes about the an hour and a half to make the trip by land, on two-lane road," Crenshaw said.

It would be a great time-saver for farm trucks and equipment, tour buses and recreational vehicles.

The new boat and barge have arrived in Hickman Harbor, where they will be tested and readied for duty.

Serodino Inc. of Chattanooga, Tenn., built the $212,700 barge and Progressive Industrial of Palmetto, Fla., built the $180,000 tugboat.

The name of the tugboat will be "The Dorena." The barge will be "The Hickman."

"We're proud of these crafts," said Crenshaw. The boat is a 40-foot vessel, 13 feet wide, powered by a pair of 250-horsepower John Deere engines, and includes the latest safety equipment -- radar system, radio and other communications and safety lighting.

The barge is 78 feet long and 32 feet wide.

The port authority will pay for the tug and barge with a $278,000 federal grant, and Missouri and Kentucky will provide an additional $75,000 each to ensure adequate operating money until the ferry becomes self-supporting.

A special christening ceremony is planned Aug. 1 on the Missouri side of the river.

The Ste. Genevieve ferry, previously owned by Ste. Genevieve-Modoc Ferry Inc., founded by stockholders on both sides of the river, serves the historic French colonial region of Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois, connecting the Illinois towns of Modoc and Prairie du Rocher with Ste. Geneveive.

The ferry, which was acquired by the New Bourbon Port Authority recently, is being leased to the same founding stockholders.

The Ste. Geneveive-Modoc Ferry closed in 1981 but was reopened by the new corporation in 1991, with new equipment.

"The ferry has hauled between 12,000 and 15,000 cars a year since it was re-opened," said Ron Inman, one of the four founders. The ferry also hauled hundreds of farm vehicles, bicycles and individuals.

"We're pleased to see the port authority acquire the operation," said Inman. "And, at this time of year, the ferry will be busy. We always depend heavily on the summer through fall to carry it."

Ferries operated by the New Bourborn Port Authority, Mississippi County Port Authority and the Lewis County Port Authority at Canton, are the only public ferries in Missouri, said Jack Hynes, of the Railroads and Waterways Division of the Missouri Department of Highways and Transportation.

"We realize the necessity of having ferries," said Hynes. "There are about eight private ferry operations in the state. This opens up new opportunities for people to cross a river."

Ferries may not yet be an endangered species, but they're certainly on the rare list.

At one time there were thousands of small ferries throughout a nation with few bridges. Where there was a river, lake or stream too deep to ford or too wide to bridge, a ferryboat connected people who lived on either side, carrying products, animals and people to and fro.

Early ferryboats were powered by horses that pulled them with ropes. Others were powered by people pushing long poles against the river bottom or by the river's current while tethered to a stationary guideline.

The first license issued for a ferry at Cape Girardeau was issued to Louis Lorimier in June 1805.

Until the river bridge, ferryboats were the only way to cross the river here. At what is now Trail of Tears State Park, Green's Ferry transported people and livestock between Missouri and Illinois. And the A.C. Jaynes operated out of Cape Girardeau until September 1928.

Moses Minton, known as "ole Mose" was an early turn-of-the-century ferryman at Cape Girardeau. He never let anything hinder him from his rounds.

When the river was full of ice, Mose, with passengers in his skiff, worked his way across the river safely. At any hour of the night, he could be seen paddling his ferry with lantern on the front of the boat.

During the 1920s, the Kiwanis Ferry operated across the Mississippi River from Cairo, Ill., to Bird's Point. The Addie May provided service across the Mississippi between Illmo and Thebes, Ill. At one time, five ferryboats operated out of Cairo.

As late as the mid-1970s, the "Miss June" ferry was operating from Wittenberg to Grand Tower, Ill.

In 1973 a different kind of ferry emerged to allow people from Illinois to get to the river bridge, where they were transported to Cape Girardeau. The bridge was cut off from East Cape Girardeau, Ill., by floodwater. The duck operated between the hours of 6 and 9 a.m. and 4 and 7 p.m., leaving the Cape Bridge on each hour and transporting people to dry ground.

Ferries have also operated at times between Portageville and Tiptonville, Tenn., and Columbus, Ky., and Belmont.

The latest link between Tiptonville and Portageville was in the late 1980s when a ferry provided access to Reelfoot Lake near Tiptonville.

A previous Portageville-Tipeonville ferry had operated for years before closing in 1978. The 1988 operation was a short-lived one.

The network of interstate highways and bridges have grown, and many smaller ferries have disappeared.