SG048 - Ferry Tricky Business Traditional Geocache

This cache area, located on an old logging road is a nice walk or ATV ride.  I would check the roadway before driving down it.  The beginning of the road is sometimes deceptive as to what is on the other end.  This road is not plowed or upgraded anymore.  It can be accessed in the winter if the grader ridge is not too high.  It could be fairly tricky business or was that ferry tricky business.

For centuries people have been crossing rivers by boats.  With the arrival of the fur trade, and then settlers, a need for a ferry became obvious.  It was simply not feasible to load your team and wagon into a canoe and cross the river.

When Mirror Landing applied for village status in 1913 one of the signees was W.A. McMillan who listed his job as ferryman.  On the Mirror Landing town site, which is now private property, the ferry tower has fallen but is still there.

In 1918 the government cut a new trail  from Athabasca Landing to Smith on the south side of the Athabasca River.  They installed a ferry crossing about 300 yards downstream from Mirror Landing .  By this time Mirror Landing was barely in use.  The businesses had moved to Smith for access to the railroad. The new ferry crossing would have been just west of our River Bridge.

There are stories of the brakes failing on cars as they were being loaded on the ferry.  Other stories involve horses and other stock that spooked while crossing the river, many of them being lost along with their wagons and cargo. 

I’m glad we have a bridge now as this is one part of frontier life I would have had a hard time with