At the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers, near an old Palouse Indian settlement, Lyons Ferry became an important ferry crossing in 1862 after the completion of the Mullan Road, the first wagon road over the Rocky Mountains and inland to the Pacific Northwest. Originally called the Palouse Ferry, the name changed to honor longtime ferry operator Daniel Lyons. For a little over a hundred years the private toll ferry powered by the steadily-moving current carried traffic across the river. The Army Corps of Engineers built the Lower Monumental Dam downstream from Lyons Ferry in 1969, raising the water level near the ferry, slowing the current of the Snake River, and increasing the ferry’s crossing time.

The Washington Department of Highways brought a dismantled steel truss bridge originally meant for the Columbia River to the confluence of the Palouse and Snake Rivers to replace the ferry. The newly named Lyons Ferry Bridge shutdown the aging ferry operations in the late 1960s. The old ferry site became a Washington State Park in 1973 after the state acquired a lease for the land from the Army Corps of Engineers. However, the state closed the park in 2002 after a series of budget cuts. Since the mid-2000s, the Corps granted the lease to the Port of Colombia. Renamed Lyons Ferry Park and Marina, the park supports recreational activities such as camping, boating, and fishing.

Researched, written, and narrated by University of West Florida Public History Student Spenser Andrade.