Surveys Set for a Free Ferry Crossing
A Bonner County commissioner checks connecting roads while an engineer is hired to survey the proposed crossing at Newport.
J. C. Finstad, commissioner for the western district of Bonner County, was in town Tuesday looking up the matter of roads leading to the proposed free ferry. Engineer James Fleming has been engaged by the Fidelity Co. to make the necessary surveys for the building of the free ferry, and will start work this week.
“Engineer James Fleming has been engaged by the Fidelity Co. to make the necessary surveys for the building of the free ferry, and will start work this week.”
In an era before bridges and paved highways, a free ferry was a lifeline for river communities, and the push to survey one shows how public access was built piece by piece. The debate over who pays for rural connections—and which roads feed them—still sounds familiar.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.