Name/Title
Parrotts Ferry BridgeEntry/Object ID
2021.23.34Description
Parrotts Ferry Bridge, ca. 1950
*Thomas H. Parrott operated a ferry service beginning in 1860 to connect the mining towns of Tuttletown and Vallecito. During the lake’s dry periods, sandbags laid in the river created a dam that built up the lake level high enough so the ferry could float across. The ferry had a wooden bottom and propelled across the lake by using heavy cables anchored to a large boulder. After filling New Melones Reservoir, the cables, boulder and sandbag remnants are no longer visible.
The ferry service lasted more than 40 years, until 1903 when the first bridge over the river was built. The Columbia-Vallecito bridge in use today opened in 1979. The bridge is one of the tallest of its kind in the country.
Area visitors and cyclists can enjoy panoramic views of the Sierra Nevada and the confluence of the Stanislaus and New Melones Rivers. This marker is one of 17 commemorative markers on the Mark Twain Bret Harte Trail through the Gold Country.