Across the Waters into Southern Illinois

From Marion Kentucky, we turned north on KY Hwy 91 and headed for the Ohio River.  I love to take ferry boats and there are fewer and fewer in operation as the years pass. 

The longest ferry boat ride that we ever took was from Port Hardy on Vancouver Island, British Columbia along the coast to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.  We’ve also taken a couple of the big ferry boat in Puget Sound as well as one that crossed Sidney Harbor in Australia.  Of course, we’ve taken others where the river was so narrow, it only took a couple of minutes to cross…

KY Hwy 91 dead ends at the Ohio River.  As you can see from the photos, the river is a big and busy commercial highway.  Despite the fact that those big boats push…and don’t pull their loads up and down the river, in the USA they generally referred to as towboats.  Other names sometimes used…more appropriately…are pusher, pusher boat or pusher tugs.  These ‘towboats’ are characterized by having a square bow, a relatively shallow draft and typically they have ‘knees’, which are large plates mounted to their bows for pushing barges of various heights.

The Ohio River runs for a total of 981 miles from Pittsburgh Pennsylvania to Cairo Illinois, where it joins the Mississippi River.  The Ohio River is part of the Mississippi River System which includes the Missouri River, Illinois River, Arkansas River, Tennessee River and others.  In all, the United States has more than 25,000 miles of inland navigable waterways…

The Cave-In-Rock Ferry is one of 4 passenger ferry services that cross the Ohio River into the State of Kentucky.  In these views, we are looking across the river to the ferry landing in the town of Cave-In-Rock Illinois.

The ferry can hold up to about 12 vehicles per trip and it takes from 20 to 30 minutes for a round trip.  About 500 vehicles use this ferry each day.  This is a free ferry operated by the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet and the Illinois Department of Transportation.  It operates 7 days a week from 6 AM until 9:50 PM Central Time.  Note: Ferry service was suspended for a time this spring due to flooding along the river.

The ‘MV Loni Jo’ was built in Paducah Kentucky back in 1966.  She was originally named the ‘Candy H’ but in June of 1979, she was renamed the ‘Ida L’.  In 1994, she was renamed again, this time as the ‘Loni Jo’.  She is about 45 feet long and she’s powered by a 250 HP Cummins Diesel Engine.  She is a roll on – roll off ferry but the ‘Loni Jo’ swivels alongside the attached vehicle ‘barge’ to change directions for each trip.

I don’t think that it is a coincidence that the ‘Loni Jo’ is owned by Lonnie Lewis.  To learn more and to plan for this relaxing way to cross the Ohio River, go to Cave-In-Rock Ferry | Cave-in-Rock IL | Facebook.

I captured this photo of the ‘MV John Wepfer’, a large 82 foot long ‘pusher’ or towboat passing downstream across the Loni Jo’s route across the river.  With one new base of operations at Metropolis Illinois, the ‘John Wepfer’ most commonly calls at that city plus Paducah and Cairo but sometimes also gets to St. Louis on the Mississippi River.  Look how long her 'tow' is.  We had to wait until she passed...

Multiple barges lashed together or a towboat/pusher with barges lashed to it, is referred to as a ‘tow’.  These tows can included dozens of barges.  A large ‘tow’ or group of barges, not including the towboat, can easily be over 1,200 feet long and 200 feet wide.  The largest operating towboat is owned by the Army Corps of Engineers.  She is the ‘MV Mississippi’ and she is 241 feet long and is powered by 3 caterpillar diesel engines developing 6,276 horsepower…

Each year, more than 184 million tons of cargo move along the Ohio River along the borders of Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.  The top 3 cargo types are coal, crude materials such as gravel, petroleum and grain.  In 2020, 2.4 million tons of grain passed through one of the lock on the Ohio River.  In total, America’s inland waterways move over 630 million tons of cargo every year.  This represents about 17% of all intercity freight and its value is about $73 Billion!

The town or village of Cave-in-Rock Illinois (population 228) was named after this nearby cave.  This 55-foot wide cave along the Ohio River was formed by wind and water erosion and enhanced by the effects of the 1811 – 1812 New Madrid earthquakes.

I 'borrowed' this photo from the Internet... As early as the 1790s, the cave became a refuge or stronghold for outlaws.  The assortment of outlaws included river pirates, highwaymen, serial killers, a series of counterfeiters and even post-Civil War bandits.  Samuel Mason was one of the worst of them.  He created a combination tavern, gambling den, brothel and a refuge for other criminals.  His men would lure in gullible river travelers, rob them and then kill them… In the Walt Disney movie, “Davy Crockett and the River Pirates”, Davy Crockett and his companion fight Sam Mason and his pirates.

To learn more about Cave-In-Rock Illinois and the history of its infamous cave, as well as the names of many of the miscreants who operated in the area, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave-In-Rock,_Illinois.  The cave and the area around it are now part of the Cave-in-Rock State Park.  To learn more about this park and what it offers, just go to Cave-in-Rock State Park (illinois.gov).

Once we arrived in Illinois, we followed a very quiet IL Hwy 146 west to the little town of Elizabethtown.  This little village is the county seat for Hardin County Illinois.  With only 220 residents, Elizabethtown is also the least populated county seat in the entire State of Illinois.  Of course, having a population of 3,649, the county itself isn’t too crowded either. (20 people per square mile)

The Historic Rose Hotel in Elizabethtown sits on top of a beautiful bluff overlooking the Ohio River.  It is one of the oldest structures in the entire state of Illinois.  The earliest portion of the hotel was built in 1812, with the east addition being added in 1848.  Originally it operated as a tavern and boardinghouse.  In 1891, Sarah Rose Baker, a widow who had worked at the hotel for 7 years, purchased the hotel from the previous owner. 

The hotel remained in the family in the family until the State of Illinois purchased the property in 1988.  A major restoration project was completed in 2000 and the hotel once again opened for business.  It is owned by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency and it is leased to an innkeeper who operates the hotel as a bed and breakfast.  The exterior has been restored to its 1889 appearance.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  To learn more about the Rose Hotel and to book a room here, just go to Hotel | The Historic Rose Hotel | Elizabethtown.

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave