Gordon's Ferry on the Kern River

The stage company did not call this Gordon's Ferry. On Butterfield's own station list the stop is Kern River Station, ten miles south of Poso Creek, and the ferry was just how the coaches crossed. Major Gordon had run it since 1853, a flat-bottomed boat hauled on an overhead cable where forty-niners had forded the Stockton to Los Angeles road. The mail was gone by 1861. The ferry lasted until 1877, when the Jewett Avenue bridge opened downstream. The bronze casts the name without its apostrophe.

What the plaque says

California Historical Landmark Gordons Ferry Gordons Ferry was an overhead cable type of ferry operated during the 1850's by Major Gordon. An adobe station house was located on the south bank of Kern River, just a few yards to the west of this marker. It was also a station on the Butterfield Overland Mail stage route from 1858 to 1860. Dedicated January 17, 1937 Bakersfield Parlor No. 42 N.S.G.W. El Tejon Parlor No. 239 N.D.G.W. Kern County Chamber of Commerce Department of Natural Resources Reg. No 137 State of California

Where it stands

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