Hills Ferry was a small

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

of the northern

San Joaquin Valley The San Joaquin Valley ( ; Spanish language in California, Spanish: ''Valle de San Joaquín'') is the southern half of California's Central Valley (California), Central Valley. Famed as a major breadbasket, the San Joaquin Valley is an importa ...

Stanislaus County, California Stanislaus County ( ; ) is a County (United States), county located in the San Joaquin Valley of the U.S. state of California. As of 2023, its estimated population is 564,404. The county seat is Modesto, California, Modesto. Stanislaus County ...

. Hills Ferry was located at , on the southern border of Stanislaus County with Merced County, northeast of the city of Newman. Hills Ferry is just west of the

river mouth A river mouth is where a river flows into a larger body of water, such as another river, a lake/reservoir, a bay/gulf, a sea, or an ocean. At the river mouth, sediments are often deposited due to the slowing of the current, reducing the carryin ...

of the

Merced River The Merced River (), in the central part of the U.S. state of California, is a -long tributary of the San Joaquin River flowing from the Sierra Nevada (U.S.), Sierra Nevada into the San Joaquin Valley. It is most well known for its swift and st ...

, at its

confluence In geography, a confluence (also ''conflux'') occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel (geography), channel. A confluence can occur in several configurations: at the point where a tributary joins a larger river (main ...

with the

San Joaquin River The San Joaquin River ( ; ) is the longest river of Central California. The long river starts in the high Sierra Nevada and flows through the rich agricultural region of the northern San Joaquin Valley before reaching Suisun Bay, San Francis ...

History

A ferry across the San Joaquin River was established in 1850, and by 1854 was transferred to Jesse Hill, resulting in the name Hill's Ferry. The ferry quickly became a shipping point for grain grown in the surrounding area, and was particularly busy during the autumn harvest. By the late 1870s, Hill's Ferry had hundreds of residents with many more in the surrounding ranches. When the railroad was built through Newman in 1888, Hill's Ferry quickly declined. The Simon Newman Company store building was in Hills Ferry, which later served as Fisher's Opera House until demolished in 1904. In July 1906, a fire near Hills Ferry and Newman destroyed 2,500 acres of wheat and barley and 20,000 acres of pasture, along with hay, farm equipment and buildings. "Not even the shadows of a ghost town" remained as of 1976. In May 1868, Scottish botanist John Muir crossed here on his walk from Oakland to Yosemite. (Muir, John, “Rambles of a Botanist Among the Plants and Climates of California” (1872)

References

Unincorporated communities in Stanislaus County, California Merced River Ferry transportation in California History of Stanislaus County, California Populated places established in 1850 1850 establishments in California Unincorporated communities in California {{StanislausCountyCA-geo-stub