BUSY BEE FERRY

Inscription

BUSY BEE FERRY
BOAT BUILT 1884. CAPT. JAMES
QUICK CROSSED CAYUGA LAKE
FROM HERE TO INTERLAKEN WITH
PASSENGERS & MAIL UNTIL 1911.
LATER SUNK NEAR INTERLAKEN.
WILLIAM G. POMEROY FOUNDATION 2025

For many years, Captain James Voorhees Quick (1855-1946) crossed Cayuga Lake from Interlaken in Seneca County, New York to King Ferry in Cayuga County, bringing passengers and mail across the lake. In 1884, Captain Quick commissioned the 66-foot Busy Bee, a side-wheel ferry boat that used both sails and paddle wheels to propel through the water. The paddle wheels were first powered by a horse on a treadmill on board the boat, which was later replaced with a steam engine. The boat’s sails were retained even after the addition of the steam engine.

Toward the end of the boat’s career, an advertisement listing the fares for a ride on the Busy Bee ran in the August 5, 1910 edition of the Genoa Tribune. At that time, passengers could travel across Cayuga Lake on the Busy Bee for twenty-five cents, a single horse vehicle for seventy-five cents, and a double horse vehicle for one dollar. As a sign of the times, the advertisement also included that the Busy Bee could take an automobile across the lake for one dollar and fifty cents.

With the advent of the automobile and improved means of transportation around Cayuga Lake, the Busy Bee was retired in 1911. Shortly after this, the boat was sunk near the landing in Interlaken. On June 28, 1942, the Ithaca Journal ran an article in which Captain Quick, then 87 years old, recalled his Busy Bee ferry boat. In the article, it was estimated that he crossed Cayuga Lake with his ferry more than 40,000 times.

In 2022, the Pomeroy Foundation awarded a NYS historical marker to the Ovid Historical Society in commemoration of the Busy Bee Ferry, which was placed at the former ferry landing across Cayuga Lake in the hamlet of Kidders located in the village of Interlaken:

BUSY BEE FERRY

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