The End of the Old Wallula Crossing
A historic Columbia River ferry, rendered obsolete by new competition, finds a second life upriver at White Bluffs.
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.
The Wallula ferry, one of the historic crossings of the Columbia, is no more. The boat was sold last week to Mr. Preston, of White Bluffs, and was moved up the river and put into commission there. The old ferry, which in its day had made a small fortune for different owners, began to lose patronage several months ago when a new ferry was put into commission between Hover and Attalia. In an effort to forestall this competition, the owners of the Wallula ferry brought suit against Paullin and Bongard for operating without a license, as the commissioners of Walla Walla County had refused to grant a license for the new ferry. This suit is still pending but will without doubt be dismissed now. Abandonment of the old crossing has stimulated the Kennewick Commercial Club to take action intended to induce Walla Walla County to improve the road on the other side of the river.
“The old ferry, which in its day, had made a small fortune for different owners, began to lose patronage several months ago.”
The transition from private river ferries to the modern bridge network defined the development of the Tri-Cities. The location of the old Wallula ferry is now permanently lost beneath the waters of the McNary Dam reservoir, a common fate for historic infrastructure along the Columbia.
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