Published Sept 25, 1975 in the PML News

A ROUTE TO RESPECT: WARDS FERRY ROAD
By Jean McClish

Wards Ferry Road, with its tight turns and sheer drops, a narrow mountain shelf of a road that zigzags down into the steep canyon of Deer Creek, crosses the Tuolumne River and climbs up and out the other side improving only somewhat the early trail that connected Sonora with Big Oak Flat and Groveland.

Fraught with ghosts of trudging gold miners, toiling pack trains, and the foot pads and brigands who preyed upon them Ione tributary canyon is rightfully named Murderers' Gulch, the road commands the respect of today's intrepid traveler.

The Wards Ferry road begins at the apex of the "Deer Flat Loop" and is reached from the western end of Groveland by way of the Groveland-Deer Flat road, or from the indicated Wards Ferry turnoff in the eastern outskirts of Big Oak Flat.

Once on the Wards Ferry road, the Auser home appears on the right and the barn on the left, the road running through their property, the old Tom Clark ranch.

Ahead is an old barn gnawed to a skeleton by the teeth of time. Beyond, at the turn in the road stands a weathered house. Only the mind's eye sees the tended garden, the vineyard close by, a porch with a balcony spanning the length of the house.

L.L. Hunt homesteaded here. Thomas Sheehan bought the place in 1882, 160 acres. Antone and Constanza Franco Boitano owned the ranch after 1900. Their children were born here and went to the Deer Flat School with the children of neighboring ranchers.

 
 
The next mile or so of road dips up and down over gently rolling terrain. Old wooden post fences stagger alongside. Just beyond the cattle chutes on the left, the road narrows, and we're in the river canyon.

The road climbs precariously to the sides of the steep Deer Creek gorge on a narrow shelf high above the slender creek, overlooking tops of trees that grip the canyon wall below. Descending rapidly, turning to switch back at a lower level, we come to the bottom and cross Deer Creek on a slender bridge at the end of the canyon. There is space to park here, and it is a cool, sylvan spot to rest.

Continuing on, we can look across to the south face, heavily forested, and the road we have already traveled forms two slashes across the green of the canyon wall.

Within a mile we can see the waters of Don Pedro Reservoir, and a rounding curve of the road brings us to the new high bridge. It was here, just a few hundred yards above the junction of Deer Creek with the Tuolumne River that, in 1850, Joseph Ward built a sturdy ferry of hand cut logs and operated it himself. Footmen paid 25 cents to cross, horsemen - 50 cents.

By 1854 James Berger and Sam White were operating the ferry as well as a store offering miners' supplies. Countless miners came across the trail, a route more direct though rough and steep, rather than travel the triangle from Sonora to Chinese Camp to Big Oak Flat and Groveland.

In the 1860's Mr. Tuttle ran the ferry, after Berger and White had met a sudden and untimely death at the hands of a robber - the same fate that had befallen Ward, and, in due time, Tuttle also. The dangers of the trail were not entirely in the terrain!

A wagon road was constructed in the late 1870's. As was the custom of that day, citizens raised money for such projects and did much of the labor themselves. In 1875 a group from Sonora and one from south of the river organized to solicit subscriptions and plan entertainments and benefits to raise money. Construction of the road was begun in that year.

On May 18, 1878 there was musical entertainment for the benefit of the Sonora-Garrote road at Turn Verein Hall in Sonora. The program included recitations, tableaux, songs, piano solos, and orchestra selections. A minstrel show was staged in June. The collecting committee was making a valiant effort to collect money from subscribing citizens.

By mid summer of 1878 the work was nearly completed. Only the bridge across the Tuolumne River remained to be built. One of the abutments was completed, and the river having fallen seasonably low, a temporary rope and wire bridge was strung for the convenience of the workers constructing the other pier.

The TUOLUMNE INDEPENDENT of August 24, 1878 reported that "The work has cost more than the contractors anticipated owing to the hard nature of the rock cut through at Deer Creek. The road is well constructed and is splendid condition.. The two abutments for the bridge will be finished by a week from Saturday. Lumber for the bridge is already on the spot and next week workmen will commence framing the timbers. Money is wanted to get the wire for suspension, and it has not been collected, and wire cannot be obtained until money is at hand. About $700 is lacking."

A later edition proclaimed, "The Bridge across the Tuolumne will be the finest structure in the county and will stand for generations, and heritage for public use�"

The prediction proved too optimistic, for fate intervened and the bridge over the Tuolumne was destroyed by fire in 1891. In 1897 the county supervisors build a new bridge using the pier and abutment of the old one. The present structure that spans the upper reaches of Don Pedro Reservoir was constructed in the early 1970's. The old abutments are still visible up river from the new bridge. When the lake reaches capacity level, all vestige of the old bridge near the site of the original ferry that Ward built, will disappear into the waters.

Across the bridge the road can be seen on the mountainside ahead. It climbs over 1000 feet in the few miles which it covers before it reaches the junction of the Jamestown-Algerine Road. Now the scene has become bucolic, and on the way to Sonora we pass successively the turn offs to Tuolumne and Standard.