Elwell Ferry is an inland

cable ferry A cable ferry (including the terms chain ferry, swing ferry, floating bridge, or punt) is a ferry that is guided (and in many cases propelled) across a river or large body of water by cables connected to both shores. Early cable ferries often ...

which has operated since 1905 on Elwell Ferry Road between NC Highway 53 and NC Highway 87, crossing the

Cape Fear River The Cape Fear River is a long blackwater river in east central North Carolina. It flows into the Atlantic Ocean near Cape Fear, from which it takes its name. The river is formed at the confluence of the Haw River and the Deep River (North Car ...

and connecting the communities of Carvers Creek and Kelly in

Bladen County, North Carolina Bladen County ()
, from the North Carolina Collection's website at the

...

Along with Parker's Ferry and Sans Souci Ferry, the Elwell Ferry is one of three remaining cable ferries operating in

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and ...

History

In the absence of nearby river crossings, brothers Walter Hayes Russ and John Roland Russ approached Bladen County officials and were granted authority to operate a crossing ferry. Service began in 1905 with Walter Russ and later his son, Lee Roy Russ, operating the ferry.''Elwell Ferry, Kelly, North Carolina.'' Centennial edition. Ed. J. A. McKoy and C. A. Carter. ( Kelly Historical Society, 2005). The service was named for a local family. Initially constructed of wood, the 33-foot ferryboat was poled upstream and rowed back by hand and could carry a wagon and two mules. The county subsidized the ferry's operation for toll-free service six days a week, with a quarter on Sundays and a fifty cent toll for night crossings. In the 1930s, the

North Carolina Department of Transportation The North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) is responsible for building, repairing, and operating highways, bridges, and other modes of transportation, including ferries in the U.S. state of North Carolina. History The North Caroli ...

incorporated its inland ferries into the state highway system, installing the first cable at Elwell and providing larger boats that could be guided with a pull stick. Walter Russ oversaw the modernization as well as the addition of a gasoline-powered engine on the boat in the late 1930s. Until 1952, the Ferry was the only river crossing between Wilmington and Elizabethtown.

Operations

The ferry travels a distance of 110 yards, shore to shore, with a travel time of five minutes, has a maximum capacity of two cars or four tons by weight, operates without a toll, and operates daily, providing service from 6AM to 6PM, Spring and Summer, and from sunrise to sunset in the Winter and Fall. There is no ferry service on Christmas Day or on days of high water or storm conditions. Vehicles arriving on the opposite shore from the ferry, summon the ferry by blowing their horn. Ferry traffic averages 60 to 80 vehicles daily. Elwell Ferry Status Sign

The inland cable ferries located in North Carolina are operated by regional DOT divisional offices rather than the North Carolina Department of Transportation Ferry Division, with the Elwell Ferry operated by private contract with DOT Division 6. There are no plans to replace the Elwell Ferry with a bridge, which would likely cost more than the service for the secondary road would justify.

Current design

Originally constructed of

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

and since 1967 constructed of steel, the

barge Barge nowadays generally refers to a flat-bottomed inland waterway vessel which does not have its own means of mechanical propulsion. The first modern barges were pulled by tugs, but nowadays most are pushed by pusher boats, or other vessels ...

-like vessel features the controllman's room to one side, with the

diesel engine The diesel engine, named after Rudolf Diesel, is an internal combustion engine in which ignition of the fuel is caused by the elevated temperature of the air in the cylinder due to mechanical compression; thus, the diesel engine is a so-cal ...

sitting aside the control room. As a powered

, the vessel is guided by a steel cable drawn across the river, secured on each shore by steel anchors. The cable is lowered into the river when the ferry is not operational and is stretched across the river during hours of operation. There is sufficient clearance for small boats to pass under the cable, but it is lowered when barges pass, though barge traffic on the Cape Fear river in this section ceased in the 1990s. The ferry is powered by a diesel engine and a propeller. Stopping is controlled by the operator's throttle. As the ferry cannot turn around, each end includes a ramp, and alignment of the ferry at each end is automatic.

Fatalities, accidents and closings

Walter Russ, originator of the service, was the ferry's first fatality, killed in a March 1942 explosion caused when poorly ventilated fumes ignited in the

bilge The bilge of a ship or boat is the part of the hull that would rest on the ground if the vessel were unsupported by water. The "turn of the bilge" is the transition from the bottom of a hull to the sides of a hull. Internally, the bilges (us ...

. A year later the ferry had been rebuilt and resumed service with safety improvements. In 1967 two men committed

suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and ...

by jumping off the ferry and in 1994 two men were killed trying to push an oversize vehicle onto the ferry. Prior to the use of wheel chocks, several vehicles had fallen overboard. For two months in the summer of 2009, the ferry service remained closed, while pavement erosion from the Cape Fear River at the north and southern ferry landings was repaired. Service resumed in August, 2009. Following Hurricanes Matthew and Florence in 2016 and 2018, the ferry was closed for a year. In January of 2020, flooding caused major damage and the ferry was taken to the Department of Transportation in White Lake, Bladen County for repairs. Today it is back on the water between Kelly and Carvers Creek, resuming operation on October 10th, 2022.

References

External links

Information and Pictures for the Elwell Ferry2008 Article on the Elwell Ferry
{Dead link, date=January 2022 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Ferries of North Carolina Transportation in Bladen County, North Carolina Cable ferries in the United States