Wards Ferry Road is an approximately sixteen mile long north/south roadway in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Tuolumne County. Wards Ferry Road is one of the oldest road corridors in Tuolumne County having been set up as a ferry crossing by Joesph Ward during 1850. Wards Ferry Road was once the primary connecting highway between the communities of Big Oak Flat and Sonora. Wards Ferry Road is most well-known from it's largely one-lane wide alignment through Murderer's Gulch where it crosses the Tuolumne River via heavily graffitied 1971 Wards Ferry Bridge. Pictured as the blog cover is the 1897 Wards Ferry Bridge as it was during 1951. The 1897 Wards Ferry Bridge was built upon the anchoring piles of the original 1879 Wards Ferry Bridge which had burned during 1891. Part 1; the history of Wards Ferry Road According to Groveland Museum historian Joe Hopkins a ferry crossing across the Tuolumne River across what is now known as Murderer's Gulch was developed by Joseph Wa
Because every road has a story.