Rockland's Ferry Helped Surveyors Find the Neches

In the 1920s, a federal river report gave directions to its Neches gauge the way a local traveler might: at the ferry on the highway between Rockland and Zavalla, half a mile above the Texas and New Orleans railroad bridge and one mile north of Rockland. That one location line stacks the old map in order: town, highway, ferry, rail, river. There was no street address to follow.

Rail had already helped define this corner of Tyler County. In 1882, the Sabine and East Texas Railroad built a line from Kountze to Rockland that ran the length of the county. The gauge record in the report ran from October 1923 through September 1924. Both the ferry and the railroad bridge were obvious landmarks.

The ferry has more than a handed-down story behind it because the U.S. Geological Survey used it to locate a working stream gauge. Its field description preserves a sharp little picture of Rockland: measure the river just upstream from the tracks, beside the boat crossing, north of town.