Old Missoula

Gilman’s Ferry in Grass Valley – Calling All Deep Creek Gilmans

Photograph – Courtesy of Harvey C. Hackman

“Before the first bridges were built in this area – and for many years after – the ferry was used for crossing the Clark Fork River in the Missoula vicinity. This is a photo of Gilman’s ferry in Grass Valley west of the Garden City taking a covered wagon and two horses across the stream.”

While the Missoulian photograph above cannot be presented here, another photograph is available at the archives website of the Mansfield Library Digital Collections. The photo available at Mansfield appears to have been taken of the exact same ferry-crossing that the Missoulian article presents. It is an even better photo in that you can see the cables above the ferry as it is making its way across the river. It has 1890 written across the bottom.

The exact location of this ferry is never identified, however the Mansfield Library Digital Collection features several other photos of Gilman family members and they are identified with a mention of Deep Creek in several photos. That would seem to imply that the ferry ran about where Harper’s Bridge was located several miles downstream from the junction of the Bitter Root and Clark Fork Rivers.

The river bank in the U of M picture, however, has the look of the long bank not very far below what is now Kelly Island on the Clark Fork River. Perhaps there are members of the Gilman family still living in the area who could clarify this. There are several more great photos of the Gilman family available on the same page from the website.

A link to the Mansfield Library photo appears below:

http://mtmemory.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16013coll27/id/852/rec/1

http://mtmemory.org/cdm/search/searchterm/gilman%20family/order/title