This story originally aired in the Dec. 8, 2024 episode of Inside Appalachia.
Let’s say you find yourself in Sistersville, West Virginia and you really have a hankering for a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich from the Riverview Restaurant just across the Ohio River in the tiny unincorporated town of Fly, Ohio.
You have a couple options. You could drive up to New Martinsville, West Virginia, cross the bridge and head back down. That’s about a 30 minute trip. Or you could drive down to St. Mary’s, West Virginia and cross there. That’s about a 45 minute trip.
Or you could just take the Sistersville Ferry, which will only require 10 minutes of your time — and $5.
“There is not a schedule. It’s what I call on demand,” said captain Bo Hause, who piloted the ferry for the last 12 years. “Right now we’re on the West Virginia side (and) a car pulled up, so we’re getting ready to go to Fly, Ohio. We’re going to sit there until a car shows up there, or a car shows up on the West Virginia side. Then we’ll come back and get them.”
Hause looks the part of a wizened river man: long gray beard, long gray ponytail, arms sleeved in tattoos. But he’s just the latest in a long line of pilots. The Sistersville Ferry has served this community for over 200 years, mostly without interruption.
The boat only makes two stops — Sistersville and Fly. It’s the only ferry in West Virginia, and one of only six ferry crossings left on the entire Ohio River.
When the area’s economy was in better shape, this ferry used to run every day. Now the ferry is mostly just a local tradition and tourist attraction. The schedule reflects that. It is only from the beginning of May to the end of September, Thursday through Sunday.
Hause came to the job back in 2012 after retiring from the Coast Guard. His daughter worked for the local newspaper and learned the ferry board was looking for a new pilot.
“I put in a resume and I was working the next day,” he said.
Though Hause had taken the helm of lots of different ships during his time with the Coast Guard, there was a learning curve once he got on the water here.
“I’d never driven a tugboat. That was a little different, just because of the setup in the pilot house,” he said.
The driver’s seat of this boat is probably unlike anything you’ve seen before. The pilot controls the boat by yanking on a series of horizontal chrome levers to control the throttling of the boat’s giant diesel engine.
“So it took a little practice. It took me about a month (before) I could do it on my own,” he said.
After 12 seasons, Hause knows all the intricacies of this crossing. He knows how a wind from the north will push the boat, and the location of the sandbars hidden beneath the water’s surface. He knows how the current will affect his angle of approach to the muddy landing on the Ohio side of the river.
But now Hause is leaving. The 2024 ferry season was his last, and he spent those months trying to impart his knowledge to the ferry’s incoming captain, Tom Meek.
“Bo gave two years’ notice. And no other qualified pilots had ever applied. No one showed any interest,” said Meek, a retired police officer who started as Hause’s deckhand in 2023. “So about two-thirds of the way through the season last year they asked if I’d be interested. And I said ‘Sure.’”
There was one small problem. Meek had never driven a boat before.
“So this, to him, would be like a newly licensed individual learning how to drive a tractor trailer first,” Hause said.
But Meek has proved an excellent student.
“In fact if he had his license right now I’d say, ‘Give him the keys,’” Hause said.
During the offseason, Meek plans to attend pilot school in Huntington and earn his pilot’s license. Under Hause’s tutelage, he has already learned the ins and outs — or rather, the backs and forths — of running this ferry. Meek also learned quite a bit about its clientele.
“Today, because it’s the last day of the season, there are a lot of people who’ve never been on this ferry. Because they’re pulling up asking ‘How much?’” Regular riders, they know the price,” Meek said. “A lot of times I can see, ‘Oh, that’s a regular.’”
Turning the driving over to Meek has allowed Hause to spend more time with those regulars. These are folks he’s known for over a decade, but on busy days could only wave to from the window of the pilot house.
On Hause’s final day, the Eastham family pulls their red Ram pickup onto the ferry at the Sistersville dock. As they roll onto the boat, mom Nicole Eastham hollers out the passenger at Hause.
“Today’s the day!” she said, sounding congratulatory but with a twinge of sadness in her voice.
The Eastham family are regulars and are headed to some property they own on the Ohio side. As soon as the truck is in “park,” daughter Kaylin and son Avery jump right out to talk to Hause. Nicole said the captain is basically part of the family.
“He’s known my daughter since she was just a baby and he knew Avery before he was born,” she said. “I rode when I was pregnant. So he’s seen him grow up.”
Interacting with kids has been a highlight of Hause’s time as captain. He remembers when Kaylin, still in a booster seat, would pay the ferry toll.
“She’d hand her little arm out the car window and say ‘Here you go!’ I just enjoy watching families grow, watching kids grow up,” he said.
Ferry board member Helen Buccella-Costa said Hause’s warm personality is one of the boat’s main attractions.
“He’s just got a great heart and a wonderful heart and a great smile. He comes down and gives bones to all the dogs and candy to the kids,” said Buccella-Costa. “He makes you feel happy to be on the boat.”
The sky is overcast and drizzly and business is slow as Hause’s final day comes to a close. But the ferry has one final run to make. The crew must go back to Ohio and turn the sign around, so drivers will know the ferry is closed for the season.
Meek climbs out of the pilot house to give his mentor one final turn at the wheel.
“When I retired from the Coast Guard my wife asked me if I was going to be OK because I wasn’t going to be on the water,” Hause said. “I don’t know that I’ll miss it, but I definitely enjoyed it while I was doing it.”