The Great Ferry Steer Escape
A ferry operator and a cattle buyer are headed for a legal showdown after five steers decided to take the scenic route across the Columbia River.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Jim Gavin and George Finley are likely to get into a lawsuit one of these days. It seems that Jim has a franchise for operating a ferry between Pasco and Kennewick which gives him control of the landing place on each side of the river. Finley bought five steers in Franklin County last week and drove them down to the ferry to cross over. Jim didn't close the end gate, and not being used to steam navigation, the steers just kept on going and jumped off the end of the ferry and swam across. Finley refused to pay the ferry bill, and Jim is threatening to sue, claiming that his franchise gives him exclusive landing rights on either side of the stream. The matter is further complicated by the fact that while the steers started from Jim's territory, they landed way down on Paullin Bongard's territory.
“Jim didn't close the end gate, and not being used to steam navigation, they just kept on going and jumped off the end of the ferry and swam across.”
Ferry franchises and river-crossing disputes were once the lifeblood of regional commerce in the Tri-Cities. Today, the debate over who controls the riverbanks has shifted from cattle crossings to massive infrastructure projects and public access rights along the Columbia shoreline.
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