Cumberland River Ferry
Kentucky's only 24/7 state-owned and operated ferry connects two segments of KY-214, which leads to the scenic Turkey Neck Bend section of southeastern Monroe County. For boating and fishing, a concrete ramp has been installed on the down river side of the ferry. Fishing on the Cumberland can't be beat, sauger, stripe, big-mouth, rainbow trout . . . just to name a few.
The Cumberland River is a wild river above the headwaters of Lake Cumberland. One of the largest waterfalls in the eastern
United States, Cumberland Falls, 68 feet high, is on this river. Most of the river below Lake Cumberland's Wolf Creek Dam is navigable because of several locks and dams. A 90-mile section of its Big South Fork is protected by the National Park Service as Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
The Cumberland River is an important waterway in the Southern United States. It is 688 miles (1,107 km) long. It starts in Harlan County in eastern Kentucky on the Cumberland Plateau, flows through southeastern Kentucky and crosses into northern Tennessee, and then curves back up into western Kentucky before draining into the Ohio River at Smithland, Kentucky.
Turkey Neck Bend in Monroe County, KY, has the Kentucky's only ferry owned and operated by the Commonwealth of Kentucky, "the Cumberland River Ferry." "The Turkey Neck Bend Ferry transports an average of 220 vehicles a day across the Cumberland River at KY 214. A new vehicle barge was put into service during the summer of 2009. It substantially outweighed the old barge, and a more powerful replacement for the current, 25-year old tugboat was needed," a recent article from Commonwealth News Center stated. A stimulus grant of $300,000 announced in July 2009 funded a new tugboat for Turkey Neck Bend; state run ferry offers free crossing for vehicles on KY 214 across the Cumberland River in Monroe County; once privately owned by Cleo Finley, it was purchased by the Commonwealth in 1968 during the Administration of Governor Louie B. Nunn.
Locations of other river ferries in Kentucky: https://transportation.ky.gov/MultimodalFreight/Pages/FERRYBOATS.aspx
Cumberland River Ferry Print
For Sale at Tourism Office in Tompkinsville
Call for more information: 270-487-1314
