Bonelli's Ferry or Old Bonelli Ferry was a Colorado Riverferry between Arizona and Nevada. It was located on the Colorado just above the Virgin River, near Junction City. The latter was later known as Rioville, Nevada in the late nineteenth century. Both the former sites of the ferry and of Rioville were submerged below Lake Mead, created by a dam on the Colorado River.
Bonelli moved his ferry operation up river to near Junction City in 1876, at the mouth of the Virgin River.[1] A wagon and 2 persons were charged $10.00 to cross, and $0.50 for each additional person.[3]
Bonelli's Ferry was destroyed by a flood in 1904, the same year that Daniel Bonelli died.[1] His son rebuilt and ran the ferry at least until the 1920s.[4]: 97 A ferry operated at this site until 1935, when Lake Mead began to rise behind a dam on the Colorado River.
Today
The sites of Bonelli's Ferry and Rioville are now under Lake Mead.[1]