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The Arrow Park Ferry

by John MacFarlane 2018

The Arrow Park Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

Arrow Park is situated at "The Narrows", a channel in the Columbia River that separates the Upper and Lower Arrow Lakes, 22km south of Nakusp on Highway 6. There is a vehicle and passenger ferry that connects the two sides. The ferry facility is pretty ‘no nonsense’. A concrete ramp serves as access that is bracketed by the cables anchored to the shore. There are anchor points on the shore that adjust the cables according to the fluctuating water levels in the river. The variation over the year is significant and requires constant adjustment.

The Arrow Park Ferryline up (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

The vessel is a steel cable ferry 49.99m x 16.83m x 2.41m built in 1990 by Vancouver Shipyards Ltd. She is powered by 2–365bhp diesel engines.

In 1995–2020 she was owned by the British Columbia Transportation Financing Authority, Victoria BC.

The signage at the ramp of the Arrow Park Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

Vehicle drivers create their own lineup and wait for the arrival of the ferry. The venue is quiet and unhurried, surrounded by magnificent scenery.

The Arrow Park Ferry (Photo from the John MacFarlane collection.)

Built in 1995 she was powered by a 85bhp diesel engine. She is 38.10m x 13.35m x 1.46m steel–hulled 239gt 233rt. She is a cable reaction ferry with a capacity for 24 vehicles and 50 passengers.

The new Arrow Park Ferryline up (Photo courtesy of B.C. Ferries.)

Since my visit a new vessel has been put into service.

To quote from this article please cite:

MacFarlane, John (2018) The Arrow Park Ferry. Nauticapedia.ca 2018. http://nauticapedia.ca/Gallery/Arrow_Park_Ferry.php

Site News: December 21, 2024

The vessel database has been updated and is now holding 94,824 vessel histories (with 16,274 images and 13,929 records of ship wrecks and marine disasters).

Vessel records are currently being reviewed and updated with more than 45,000 processed so far this year (2024).

The mariner and naval biography database has also been updated and now contains 58,599 entries (with 3996 images).

Thanks to Ray Warren who is beginning a long process of filling gaps in the photo record of vessel histories in the database. Ray has been documenting the ships of Vancouver Harbour for more than 60 years.

Thanks to contributor Mike Rydqvist McCammon for the hundreds of photos he has contributed to illustrate British Columbia’s floating heritage.

My very special thanks to our volunteer IT adviser, John Eyre, who (since 2021) has modernized, simplified and improved the update process for the databases into semi–automated processes. His participation has been vital to keeping the Nauticapedia available to our netizens.

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