Open Letter to President, Senators, Congressman on Local Ferry Troubles: "Build Bridges"

8/15/2025

To the Editor:

Open Letter to President Donald Trump, Senator Mitch McConnell, Senator Rand Paul, Representative Brett Guthrie:

My name is Scottie Woodcock, born in the city of Brownsville in Edmonson County Kentucky. I have had a normal life, I played basketball, baseball, and graduated in 1951. After that I got a job from Mammoth Cave Concessions and they sent me to work as a dishwasher at the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina. There I saw a beautiful waitress named Ethel Davis and dated her; we fell in love and married when we were 18 years old. We stayed in North Carolina for a short time and then returned to Brownsville, God blessed us with three daughters and a son. In 1957 we started a business called the Western Auto and worked with the Bank of Edmonson County.

At this time in my life the question came to me… what is my purpose of being here? It came to me that my purpose is to make Brownsville and Edmonson County a better place when I leave this life than what I found it to be. With that in mind, my wife and I joined every organization in the county. I served on the town board several times, helped bring an industrial foundation to Brownsville, and was a charter member of the Lions Club.

In 2 months, I will be 93, this past week I have driven to Cincinnati, played golf two or three times, and bush hogged my farm regularly. My mind is good on what I am going to write you about, just don’t ask me what I had for dinner yesterday!

This last week I drove to the part of Edmonson County called “the Forks of the River” which is located between the Green River, Nolin River, and Mammoth Cave National Park. I drove up there to see if the Green River Ferry inside the park was open, it was not. Of Mammoth Cave’s 50,000 acres, 40,000 of them are in Edmonson County, including most of the park buildings and the caves that makes Mammoth Cave a world heritage site. But despite this, the people of Edmonson County have not reaped the reward of having this beautiful park in our backyards, and if anything, it has made life in our quaint county more difficult. Interstate 65 completely bypasses Edmonson County, due to the park. It takes someone nearly an hour to drive from one end of our county to the other because of the Park. The only bridge across the Green River is outside the park, there were/are two ferries over the river in the park but over the past several years the Park Service has been seeking excuses to close them due to either high water or low water. And recently they have announced intentions to completely close the ferries.

Recently, the Army Corps of Engineers removed the dams and locks from the Green River and has lowered the water level dramatically. Now the stretch of the Green River inside Mammoth Cave resembles a creek or a branch rather than the river it once was. This brings me to my main request for you, to build bridges over these parts of the river where the ferries once operated.

This is not the first time I have taken action concerning the roads around the National Park.

Years ago, R.A. Demumbrum, Col. R.E. Donahue, Maurice Parsley, and I met with Governor Happy Chandler to pave the road to the Park in Edmonson County. I also was a close acquaintance with Representative Bill Natcher.

Mammoth Cave has walking, biking, and horse riding trails, but there is nothing for other folks to drive all around the park, as the roads are now a dead end at the ferry. The closure of these ferries has hindered visitation to the park and has literally divided our county. Barren County and Hart County have enjoyed both the benefits of the park and the interstate, and Edmonson County has been ignored and left feeling like a “BASTARD AT A FAMILY HOMECOMING!”

In closing I will paraphrase President Reagan’s call for Mr. Khrushchev to "Tear down this wall!” So, Donald, Mitch, Rand, Brett… BUILD THOSE BRIDGES FOR EDMONSON COUNTY!

Sincerely,
Scottie Woodcock,
Brownsville

8 Comments

Anthony Zagaros

8/15/2025 09:27:06 am

Thanks for writing this Scottie! It’s a shame what they did to the river…who even wants to put a boat in! And the ferry’s….dont get me started on that. Thanks for all you’ve done in this county Scottie! Your a true citizen!

Linda Lindsey

8/15/2025 11:18:45 am

Very well said ! Thank you for writing this!

Odis Rigdon

8/15/2025 12:41:47 pm

3 or 4 big culverts would span the river then build on top of these. It makes no sense to isolate so much of the “back side” of the park and to isolate the local people from the rest of the world. Build bridges (2) one for Mammoth Cave ferry and one for Brownsville ferry. Keep these roads open I was always told that was the promise made when people had to vacate for a park.

Don Lamar

8/15/2025 03:02:09 pm

My father in-law, Dallis Meredith fought tearing out the locks all his life because of this very reason. He told me that there was an agreement with the government that when the formed the park that there had to be an access across green river. Does anyone know if this is true? Should there not be paperwork of this agreement with our county somewhere in the courthouse records?

Donna Carroll

8/15/2025 06:05:41 pm

Amen, I am a resident of The Forks . What used to take 25 minutes to get to Cave City now takes us over 1 hour. My next door neighbor works for The park service and has to “drive around”! He could be at work in 15 minutes, which now takes him over a hour!!! My niece who lives on Stockholm rd. Has to drive to Cub Run, to Munfordville, to Cave City , then on to Glasgow just to go to work! How inconvenient is that?! We are mostly forgotten, cut off from the rest of the world, it seems. And NOBODY cares! I have known for years this was coming tho, what a shame!

Janette Woodcock

8/15/2025 09:32:07 pm

Thank you Scottie Woodcock for this post.i It is well said & true.

M J Reinecke

8/16/2025 08:37:39 am

Scottie you have said this so well, thank you.
Tourism on our side of the Park gets left behind when those ferries are closed.

Donathan Jacobs

8/20/2025 11:37:16 pm

Before I even came across this article, I was having lunch with my father who’s a 100% disabled veteran and I asked him, “Why aren’t bridges being built instead of continuing to rely on this unreliable ferry?” He looked at me and said, “That’s the same question I’ve been asking for years.”

This isn’t just a minor inconvenience it’s a growing issue that’s hurting our local economy. In areas like Forks of the River, we’re seeing businesses shut down due to the lack of consistent transportation access. People are being cut off from work, goods, and basic services.

At some point, conversations have to turn into action. Temporary fixes like ferry repairs aren’t enough. Building proper bridges would not only solve the problem it would unlock new opportunities and stability for this region.

This matters to our families, our businesses, and our community’s future. Let’s stop kicking the can and finally build the bridges.

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.

Open Letter to President, Senators, Congressman on Local Ferry Troubles: "Build Bridges"

Leave a Reply.