Tilden originally included a discussion, which was later omitted, of a hanging that occurred near Meek's Ferry, which operated near present day Ferry Butte (hence the name). A number of ferries operated in lower Bingham County in the latter part of the nineteenth century. Tilford Kutch started one up near Blackfoot in the mid-1860’s and turned it over to T.T. Danilson by 1878. The Blackfoot Bridge ended the need for the ferry but was washed out in February of 1881, so a new ferry service began. But by the next year the bridge was fixed and the ferry was no more.
In 1862 a ferry was in place at the present day Ferry Butte. Called the Meeks and Gibson Ferry, it was granted a franchise by the territorial legislature in 1864 to operate anywhere within two miles below the mouth of the Blackfoot River for a period of ten years. It eventually lost its trade to the Blackfoot Bridge, too.
The Fort Hall Ferry, according to a diary entry by Julius Caesar Merrill in 1864, operated one mile away from the original fort. Merrill refers to another operating above there, but whether it was between Meek’s Ferry and Fort Hall or was Meek’s Ferry we cannot say.
When T.T. Danilson lost his ferry trade in Blackfoot, he moved to American Falls. In 1881, he started up a new ferry where the Oregon Short Line would cross the Snake. He erected a stone building and operated a store there, too, though he sold the store and its stock to Collins and Co. in 1882. He kept running his ferry and a hotel.
There was also the “Big Butte Ferry”, which was established in 1888 by H. Graehl and Co. Twelve miles above Market Lake, it provided a direct route from Eagle Rock to Rexburg. A round trip was between fifty cents and a dollar.
All of this blog's information was gleaned from https://apps.itd.idaho.gov/apps/env/cultural/ENV_SnakeRiverFerries2017.pdf
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