Site of Collier's Ferry

Beaumont tried to regulate the crossing. On August 10, 1840, the aldermen passed an ordinance on cattle swimming the Neches, and the town later required a $50 bond from each drover and charged $6 for every dead animal pulled from the river. Pine Bluff Ferry, later Collier's, was preferred for its high land on both banks, and fees in the 1840s ran 2 to 3 cents a head. About 15,000 steers swam the Neches at Beaumont in October and November 1856, and in June 1879 C. T. Cade's drive of 23,000 beeves crossed at Collier's Ferry.

What the plaque says

Site of Collier's Ferry Main crossing on Old Jasper Road and alternate crossing on Opelousas Trail from Liberty through Beaumont to Louisiana. Used as early as 1750, route followed Indian traces and was highway for explorer-settlers, priests, soldiers, traders from Spain, France and Anglo-America. Ferry's most important use was as cattle crossing on famous Opelousas Trail from 1820's to 1900. Herds came this way to bypass the streets of Beaumont. Although others ran it during 1831-1950 career, ferry took its name from John Collier family who operated it for 50 years. (1968)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• McFaddin-Ward House — 3.4 mi
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• Spindletop-Gladys City Boomtown Museum — 7.0 mi
  A re-created oil boomtown on the Lamar University campus, with a derrick, period shops, a 1941 granite monument and an optional re-enactment of the January 1901 Lucas gusher.
• Village Creek State Park — 8.9 mi
  A 2,466-acre state park on one of the few free-flowing creeks in Texas, with a launch for the Village Creek Paddling Trail, boat rentals and sandy-upland trails in the Big Thicket.
• Museum of the Gulf Coast — 20 mi
  Port Arthur's regional museum in a former bank building: fossils, Native Americans, the petroleum story, a 125-foot history mural and Halls of Fame for musicians, athletes and artists.

More markers nearby

• Mildred "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias — 0.4 mi
• J.P. Richardson, Jr: The Big Bopper — 0.7 mi
• Aubrey Wilson "Moon" Mullican — 2.0 mi
• William McFaddin — 2.0 mi