Length: 9.6 mi (15.4 km) | ||
 | ||
South end: KY 70 / KY 259 at Brownsville North end: KY 728 / KY 1827 near Lincoln and Ollie | ||
Houchin’s Ferry Road is a secondary roadway located in Edmonson County in west-central Kentucky. County road logs list this road as CR-1004 and CR-1005.
Contents
- Map of Houchins Ferry Rd Brownsville KY 42210 USA
- Road description
- History
- Points of interest
- Major intersections
- References
Map of Houchins Ferry Rd, Brownsville, KY 42210, USA
Most of the road is maintained by the National Park Service, but portions of the road outside of Mammoth Cave National Park are being maintained by the Edmonson County Road Department.
Road description
Brownsville’s local branch of Minit Mart is where the road's southern end is located. This is at a junction with South Main Street (KY 70/259) on the south side of town. A trailblazer sign for the local library stands at the intersection with Ferguson Street. Houchin’s Ferry Road passes by the edges of the campus of Edmonson County High School and provides school access points to the parking lots which connects Wildcat Way.
After passing the high school, Houchin’s Ferry Road enters the western part of the Mammoth Cave National Park. This is the only road that goes through the western half of the park. It would cross the Green River via a river ferry, which is how the road got its name. The ferry crossing features a campground, boat ramp, as well as a picnic area.
The road continues as a gravel road at a point at a point north of the ferry. It then travels northeast to cross a number of horseback and hiking trails. After crossing First Creek Trail and J. Skaggs Road (which access the Great Onyx Job Corps Center), the road becomes “Ollie Road.”
Ollie Road continues northeast past a few residences before ending at an intersection with Kentucky Route 728 right near the KY 728/1827 split near Demunbruns Store and Lincoln communities, which are located east of the Nolin Lake State Park area.
History
Houchin’s Ferry/Ollie Road has long been the most direct route linking Brownsville to areas in northeastern Edmonson County. Some residents had long commuted from the rural northeastern part of the county to Brownsville. But there were times where the ferry was closed down due to either excessively high river levels, low river levels, federal government sequesters and shutdowns.
In 2013, Houchin’s Ferry was closed and put on a hiatus due to various reasons, which caused a hardship on Edmonson County’s travel between Brownsville and the Lincoln-Ollie-Demunbruns Store area. The fire department in Lincoln held a town hall-style meeting regarding the closing of the ferry, and citizens of Edmonson County were asked to call their congressmen and register their concerns about it. Many of Edmonson County’s local officials attended that meeting. The ferry was declared out-of-service in October 2013 as part of the 2013 government shutdown. The closure of Houchin’s Ferry was the second Edmonson County-area ferry to go out of business, the first being the Bear Creek Ferry southwest of Segal being shut down in the late 1960s. The Green River Ferry, further upstream, is now the only ferry in the area to remain in operation.
Points of interest
Major intersections
The entire road is in Edmonson County.