Green River Ferry reopens after sustaining damage in 2025 flooding

MAMMOTH CAVE, Ky. – After nearly a year of improvements being made to the Green River Ferry due to the severe flooding we saw back in 2025, the ferry is now back open.

In 2025, the Green River Ferry was one of many victims to the immense flooding that we saw. The river, which usually sits around 20ft in that area, surged to nearly 60ft, forcing around 55,000 cubic feet of water per minute to pass through that area. That force created by that water significantly damaged the infrastructure of the ferry.

“That flooding ripped those cables and the support towers and bent them, and it actually ripped a big concrete anchor known as a dead man out of the water. So the ferry was inoperable at that point after that flooding,” said Molly Schroer, spokesperson for Mammoth Cave National Park.

That damage not only resulted in the shutdown of the ferry but eliminated a key piece of transportation for park rangers and some residents in that area, extending travel times by nearly an hour in some places.

“We depend on it for our operations to get to the north side, to the trails or even to the campsite over there at Maple Springs. It’s normally about a 15-minute drive if we get to go over the ferry, otherwise it’s at least 45 minutes for us to get over there. So that’s impacting us. It’s impacting our emergency responders of people that need to get to the north side of this park, and we know that’s an important commuter route for people that live in the areas to move through, so we do what we can to try to keep this operating under whatever conditions are thrown at us,” Schroer said.

Quickly, though, the park services stepped up to begin their revival process, bringing in officials from Washington, D.C. to survey the damage before restoring the infrastructure and getting the ferry up and running again.

“We brought in teams from our regional Washington office to look at the damage and assess exactly what needed to be done. We went through that contracting process and the construction process, which takes a little bit of time to get everything in place. The contractor began their work in October. They were did a wonderful job. They worked through the weather and all the different challenges that were thrown at them, and were able to get the ferry open just a few weeks ago,” Schroer said

The ferry itself was removed from the river and underwent its inspection process with the U.S. Coast Guard and received a new coat of paint.

The ferry will now be moving people across the river, as long as the river stays between nine and 30ft. Discussions are also being made to improve Green River crossing in Mammoth Cave.