Parrott's Ferry and Bridge

This crossing of the Stanislaus River is the seam between Tuolumne and Calaveras counties. Thomas Parrott put a ferry in here in 1860 to connect Tuttletown on the Tuolumne side with Vallecito on the Calaveras side, and both of those are landmarks in their own right. The boat was a flat bottomed wooden thing hauled along heavy cables, and when the river ran low they built a sandbag dam to pond enough water to float it. A bridge replaced the ferry in 1903. The ferry site lies under New Melones Lake now, and today's Parrotts Ferry Bridge, finished in 1979 when the reservoir flooded the old road, carries traffic high above the water on a 640-foot center span.

What the plaque says

MARK TWAIN BRET HARTE TRAIL PARROTT'S FERRY SITE OF FERRY CROSSING ESTABLISHED 1860 BY THOMAS H. PARROTT CONNECTING MINING TOWNS OF TUTTLETOWN AND VALLECITO. FERRY IN OPERATION UNTIL 1903 WHEN FIRST BRIDGE BUILT. FERRY BOAT OF FLAT BOTTOM WOODEN CONSTRUCTION PROPELLED ON HEAVY CABLES. CABLE ANCHORAGE IN LARGE BOULDER CALAVERAS SIDE OF RIVER STILL VISIBLE (1949) AT LOW WATER, SANDBAG DAM BUILT TO FORM SMALL LAKE. STATE REGISTERED LANDMARK NO. 438 TABLET PLACED BY CALIFORNIA CENTENNIALS COMMISSION BASE FURNISHED BY ARONOS RESEARCH CLUB OF SONORA DEDICATED OCTOBER 2, 1949

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Columbia State Historic Park — 3.2 mi
  The Gem of the Southern Mines, still open for business on a car-free Gold Rush main street.

More markers nearby

• Springfield — 2.7 mi
• Carson Hill — 2.9 mi
• Archie Stevenot — 2.9 mi
• Columbia — 2.9 mi