Merrimac Ferry

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.

From the record

“The Merrimac Ferry is a cable ferry that crosses the Wisconsin River between Columbia and Sauk Counties in Wisconsin. Its western point is located near the village of Merrimac on State Highway 113 and United States Bicycle Route 30.”
Wikipedia article Merrimac Ferry, CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 55 National Register listings published here for Columbia County · listed in 1974 · category: Site.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 site, 1 object as contributing to the listing.
Address. WI 113 at the Wisconsin River, Merrimac, 53555
When was it listed? December 1974
Category. site
National Register reference number. 74000330 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Fires near this property

143 since 1992

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 143 fires within 5 miles of Merrimac Ferry between 1992 and 2020, burning about 166 acres in total. 2 started naturally. 1 was recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Debris and open burning	63
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	24
Equipment and vehicle use	21
Railroad operations and maintenance	14
Recreation and ceremony	6
Smoking	4
Power generation/transmission/distribution	4
Misuse of fire by a minor	3
Natural	2
Other causes	1
Arson/incendiarism	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
8 September 2003	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
5 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
29 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
29 September 2010	Equipment and vehicle use	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
27 September 1997	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
9 August 1992	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
3 August 1999	Railroad operations and maintenance	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	not named
24 August 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources	MATCH BAG

Every fire recorded in Columbia County

Mines and quarries near this property

1 within 5 miles

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 1 working within 5 miles of Merrimac Ferry: 1 past producer. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Where	Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
	Thistle Sandstone Quarry	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Columbia County

Map coverage status

No historic map-sheet match is published for this property yet. That does not mean no map exists. This record needs a coordinate-quality review before it can be joined to a sheet boundary. Browse the county's mapped places while that work is pending.

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Durward's Glen	5.0 miles	1978
John A. and Martha Robertson House	5.7 miles	2009
Frank T. and Polly Lewis House	5.8 miles	2009
Richard W. and Margaret Mills House	5.9 miles	2009
Lodi Street-Prairie Street Historic District	6.1 miles	2000
Job Mills Block	6.2 miles	2008

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 74000330 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Columbia County	All 55 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.