Helms Ferry
Named for the current and long-standing road commissioner Clayton Helms, the ferry connects two parts of Union County separated by Norris Lake. The story goes that TVA intially gave the county $100,000 to build a bridge back when the lake was formed - and that money just sorta disappeared. So now it costs the county around $100,000 a year to keep the ferry running. When it runs.
Planning to go over to Campbell County to show some property one day, I pulled up to the ferry and noticed a group of men (including the ferryman Johnny) looking at me curiously.
"You don't want to go on the ferry today", said Johnny-the-kidder with a big grin.
"Sure I do", says I-kidding-back.
"Nope, you don't," repeats Johnny-the-ferryman, smiling even bigger.
"Yup, I do", says I.
"No, you really don't", says Johnny.
"OK", says I, getting into the spirit of the fun and games, "why don't I want to take the ferry today?"
" 'Cause....", replies Johnny. She's sinkin'!"
And so "she" was. She had blown a rod, it had poked a rather large hole in the hull, she was taking on water and listing off to the side. I drove all the way around the lake that day.
Two weeks ago the ferry ran over a rather huge submerged tree - which proved to be really unhealthy for the propeller. Removing the propeller for repairs put the ferry out of commission for awhile. Now the repaired prop is back on the boat BUT the lake is coming up and there are a lot of large pieces of dead wood floating. So......the ferry is running ........ but only if there is nothing floating that might injure the propeller. Hard to plan your day around that!
"Ferry" is really a romantic sort of term. One imagines a large boat with a passenger observation room - maybe even a whole observation deck (think Staten Island Ferry). What we have here is a tugboat and a barge. But we are one of the last operational ferries in TN. And it's free!