Oregon’s oldest ferry, operating since 1844, gets historical designation

Wheatland Ferry In 2002, The new Wheatland Ferry headed south to the Willamette Falls Locks at West Linn Tuesday afternoon. The ferry was towed upriver to a ferry crossing north of Salem, where it replaced an older version of the Daniel Matheny ferry. (Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

Michael Shepard calls them the “frequent floaters” — the people who daily use the Wheatland Ferry to cross the Willamette River between rural Yamhill and Marion counties.

Shepard manages the ferry as well as its cousin, the Buena Vista Ferry, 30 miles to the south in Polk County. Buena Vista attracts somewhere between 30,000 and 40,000 riders per year.

Wheatland is different, said Shepard, who is employed by Marion County Public Works. Oregon’s oldest ferry, it attracts 250,000 to 300,000 riders a year, many of them those frequent floaters.

“It’s definitely a different ridership, with a lot of people commuting back and forth to work,” he said. “A lot of farmers and a lot of people in the agricultural industry in general use the ferry, especially with the cannery over in Brooks.”

An early version of the Wheatland Ferry in 1914. (File photo)

A new plaque, funded by the Oregon State Society Daughters of the American Colonists, marks the Wheatland Ferry as the oldest continuously operating ferry in the state. (Courtesy of Elaine Wagner/Elaine Wagner)

Other people just stumble across the ferry. “They are just following their GPS and had no idea there was anything like this here,” Shepard said.

Elaine Wagner, the state regent of the Oregon State Society of Daughters of American Colonists, wants everyone to know exactly what is just off Wallace Road Northwest in Yamhill County, across the highway from the Maud Williamson State Recreation Site.

Created in 1844, the Wheatland Ferry was the first ferry in Oregon to cross the Willamette River with the capability of carrying an ox and wagon. “Considering that the first wagon train was in 1843, I think this deserves to be remembered,” Wagner said.

She is the great-great-great-great granddaughter of Daniel Matheny, who built the first ferry. The current ferry, known as the Daniel Matheny V, is the latest link in an unbroken chain of ferry service going back almost 180 years.

As a leader of Daughters of American Colonists, she decided a historic marker for the ferry was in order. The marker was dedicated Sunday as other Matheny family members and area residents cheered.

“Nothing is ended unless it is forgotten,” Wagner said during the dedication. “Whatever is kept in memory endures. Therefore we, the Oregon State Society of the National Society of Daughters of the American Colonists, dedicate this marker in gratitude and recognition of the significance of this site. May it keep alive an appreciation of our heritage as a nation of a good and beautiful land.”

Matheny was around 50 years old when he established the ferry service. The community was called Atchison at the time. It became Wheatland when a post office opened in 1867 — taking its name from the wheat that was loaded onto boats from nearby farms.

Wheatland boasted two hotels, a blacksmith shop, saddle shop, shingle factory and school. By 1881, the population swelled to 319.

When the railroad bypassed the town, the town shrank. Farmers were no longer dependent on the river to move their goods. By 1915, the population dipped to 85.

The hotels closed. The post office moved to Hopewell, then Amity. A flood in 1890 took out the flour mill and warehouse.

Yet the ferry remains.

Wagner said a bridge was never built because the water levels fluctuate too much. The bridge would have to be very high, and so would its price tag.

Matheny died in 1872, and the ferry fell into the hands of several private operators until Marion and Yamhill counties began joint supervision in 1935.

Before becoming the ferry system supervisor, Shepard operated the Wheatland Ferry.

“You get to know a lot of people who cross here on a daily basis — just a lot of different people from around the community,” he said. “It’s definitely a unique position, one I never dreamed I would have any part of. There’s a lot of history that’s involved with it.”

History is obviously the focal point for Daughters of American Colonists. As with Daughters of the American Revolution, members must be able to trace their lineal ancestry back to the founding of the United States.

For DAR members, that means at least as far back as the American Revolution. Wagner’s organization requires members to have ancestors that date back at least a previous generation in colonial history.

“We precede the DAR,” said Jacke Barnes, who served as the national president of Daughters of the American Colonists from 2003 to 2006.

For Wagner, Wheatland history is intensely personal. Although she grew up in central Oregon, she remembers visiting the ferry with her young children. “My dad took them specifically over across the ferry and back across the ferry to remind them of their family history,” she said.

“It still gives me goosebumps to ride the Wheatland Ferry.”

The Wheatland Ferry operates from 5:30 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. daily throughout the year, but it is subject to closures due to weather and river conditions as well as maintenance requirements.

Rides are free for pedestrians, $1 for bicyclists, $2 for motorcyclists, $3 for vehicles less than 22 feet long, $6 for vehicles between 23 and 42 feet long, $9 for vehicles more than 43 feet long, and $18 for a vehicle carrying more than 65,000 pounds.

On the Yamhill County side, the ferry is a mile east of Wallace Road Northwest along Wheatland Road Northwest in rural Yamhill County. On the Marion County side, it is seven miles west of River Road Northeast in Keizer.

More information is available by calling 503-588-7979 or online at www.co.marion.or.us/PW/ferries