Blossom's Ferry

Blossom's Ferry was located on the Northeast Cape Fear River on the border between New Hanover and Pender Counties, one mile east-northeast of the community of Castle Hayne and approximately nine miles north of Wilmington. There is evidence of ferry activity as early as 1731 on the Northeast Cape Fear; a drawbridge and a ferry were sometimes operated in conjunction with each other in that vicinity. When Jackson Wood bought the property in 1866, the title included only "the ferry known as Big Bridge Ferry." Wood and his nephew John E. Wood operated a ferry there until 1882, when the property and ferry concession were purchased by Margaret Sophia Blossom. She and her husband Samuel continued the ferry service until his death in 1926. By that time the construction of a state-maintained bridge less than a mile west of the site eliminated the need for a ferry, ending 200 years of transportation activity. Archaeological research conducted at the ferry site from 1981 to 1983 by the East Carolina University Program in Maritime History and Underwater Research revealed the remains of two ferries, one dating from the mid-eighteenth century and the other from the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century.