Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1913-03-06
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installed, 1t is necessary TO nave a
strong current and constant channel
all the way across.
Anyone on terms of intimate &C.
quaintance with the Wisconsin river
knows few places have these requisites
The one ideal spot is the one Matt
son selected. This is now occupied by
the q, & n. w. r. r. bridge.
The ferry has been operated above
and below this spot, but in none so
successfully. We have on the Merri-
mack side high bank of clay some
sixty feet above the river bed, on the
opposite side is small area of bottom
land separated from the main land by
Spring creek leading into the river a
few rods further down.
Over this creek was low log bridge
at its mouth, and the ferry was only
from the Merrimsck shore 10 the bot
toms, and then by bridge to the West
Point side. After while this bridge
was washed awaysand another ferry
was used across the creek nearer the
landing Of. the river ferry. In high
water this bottom land would be in
undated end teams would have to ford
to the bridge, unless loo deep, in which
case the ferry boat would be detached
from the overhead cable and poIed to
and from the bridge
The r1odus Operandi
The Modus Operandi Of the river
ferry was very simple. Use OF the
current was to propel the boat across.
A strong cable was suspended in the
air squarely across the current from
shore to shore. To this cable the boat
was attached by lines, starting on
windlasses at each upper corner
of the boat, and attached at the other
end to larger pulleys in woo len hoods,
running on the overhead cable.
The operator, efter pushing the boat
off the shore, would wind up the line
on the end of the, boat in the direction
he wanted to go, until the boat would
stand diagonal with the current, per-
haps he might have to give one or two
encouraging shOves with pole to
start the ball rolling and this would
start the pulley TO rolling on the cable
as far as it could, the current
would swing the boat over to a
right angle position and the
momentum of the boat would carry it
farther. This would cause the pully
to make another run and SO on like
the pendulum of clock until the
crossing WAS made. Often such head
way would be made that the operator
would have to slacken the speed by
lowering the end of the boat wound up
to nearly right angles with the large
cable
AS the current "did the work" like
the "Gold Dust Twins" it must be con-
stantlY on the job. Hence the neces-
sity for having the right place to
operate ferry. The boat used was a
fat bottomed scow, some forty feet
long and sixteen feet wide, having
wooden aprons or platforms that could
be let down to enabled team to drive
onto the. boat. Two double teams was
about the limit of its capacity.
The Cable.
Passengers on foot either rode over
when teams were crossing or were
carried over in slziffs. In busiest times
it required two men TO operate this
ferry, but in dull times one man was
captain and crew. The cable across
the river at first was a three inch
MANILA, heavily tarred to protect it
from wear and weather. Ii was at.
tached on the Merrimack shore to
large upright windlass, sufficient extra
length being left on the windlass to
permit of its lowering into the water,
deep enough to allow the passage over
it of any steamboat. The windlass
was fastened to two strong horizontal
bars firmly bolted to two large white
oak stumps. The other end of the
cable across the river ran over an up
right timber some forty feet high,
braced by tripod of timbers and from
there down to large rock. 1t was no
easy job to raise and lower this cable
and it took several strong men to do
it. Steamboats, generally came in close
to the Merrimack shore where they
could pass under the cable. This old
MANILA cable would sag in dry
weather, becoming taut in wet
weather and sometimes would
get SO low as to catch onto the sleeping
houses of the RATS. One day it strip
ped one off entirely and so enraged
the raftsman that he swore he would
cut it down his next trip. He kept
his promise by attempting to do SO
but only cut it badly enough to cause
IT IN hraot< sOroo time aftarWard