Teen completes model of Major Ridge’s ferry
♦ The exhibit now sits outside Chieftains Museum.
Two centuries ago, Cherokee elder Major Ridge operated a ferry across the Oostanaula River just south of his home, now the Chieftains Museum on Riverside Parkway.
Today, a replica of that ferry is the newest exhibit at the museum, thanks to local Boy Scout Troop 113 Eagle Scout candidate Eli Mayes.
Mayes, 15, a student at Darlington School, said he really didn’t know much about Major Ridge before he started the project.
“I found it quite interesting really,” Mayes said. “It’s been interesting to see how Rome has developed over the years.”
The teen said he searched the Internet for information relative to the actual dimensions of the Ridge ferry but couldn’t find any specifics, so he used data from other ferries of that time period to make an educated guess as to the size of his model.
“It took about two months of planning and two months to build it,” Mayes said.
Mayes said people at Murphy Construction were instrumental in helping get materials to the site to help with construction.
“We are in the process now of getting some interpretive signage out there,” said Heather Shores, director of the museum.
The ferry allowed travelers to continue across the river along a road that came into Rome from the east. National Park Service mappers believe that road was essentially on an alignment with the existing Riverside Industrial Park Road.
Ridge also owned 12 acres on the west side of the river to go with the approximately 218 acres on the east side of the water.
Shores said that as far as she knows, there has never been any serious talk about actually putting an actual replica of the ferry on the river again.
“I have been told this part of the river is very hard to deal with because of the number of sand bars and logs and that kind of stuff. I don’t think the Roman Holiday can even run down here,” Shores said. “That would be something that if it was ever done the city would do, because our liability insurance would just go through the roof.”