Needles Ferry

The Needles Ferry is a cable ferry across Lower Arrow Lake in British Columbia, Canada. It is situated 59 kilometres (37 mi) south of Nakusp and links Needles and Fauquier.[1]

For the New York gangster Cornelius "Needles" Ferry, see White Hand Gang.
Needles Ferry

Operation

The ferry operates under contract to the British Columbia Ministry of Transportation and is free of tolls. It travels back and forth every thirty minutes, from the first departure at 5am until the last departure at 10pm, with a crossing time of about five minutes. The ferry has capacity for 30 vehicles and 144 passengers.[1]

The ferry is diesel powered and pulls using a winding drum on a pair of 1-inch-diameter (25 mm) cables, plastic coated to prevent wear, which are suspended in the lake. The crossing is about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) in length. On 31 March, 2020, the BC Provincial government announced that the ferry would be replaced with an electrically powered cable ferry.[2]

History

A ferry has been in operation from Needles since 1913.[3] Early farmers built the first ferry using Ford Model T parts. A small community in Needles, which pre-dated the ferry, was an area of fruit trees and scrub farming. Farmers provided fruit and vegetables to the mines of the Lardeau district (between Upper Arrow Lake and the head of Kootenay Lake). Canadian Pacific Railway lake steamers connected the farms to Arrowhead and Robson. The valley was flooded in the late 1960s by the construction of the Hugh Keenleyside Dam at Castlegar in the 1960s, leading people to abandon the town, after being expropriated from the lakeshore by Hydro. The ferry landing and a small cemetery are all that remain.[4]

Fauquier is the "centre" of the area that includes Edgewood and Burton with a few houses, gas station and grocery store.

gollark: The youtube-dl one was harvested nonmirrorously during the incident with youtube-dl.
gollark: The hyperrogue one should be a mirror but I forgot to tick that box.
gollark: The last three aren't anyway.
gollark: Actually, no.
gollark: No idea.

See also

References
  1. "Inland Ferry Schedules". Province of British Columbia. Retrieved 2008-11-25.
  2. "BC government launches new electric cable ferry into service | Urbanized". dailyhive.com. Retrieved 2020-05-08.
  3. Marquardt, Riel (2006). The Backroad Chronicles: Adventure & History in British Columbia. Vol. I. Trafford Publishing. p. 101. ISBN 978-1-4120-5903-9.
  4. Needles Cemetery


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.