Swan Island ferry service to resume in Richmond
Capt. Gary Smith pilots the new ferry, his boat River Runner 2, Thursday July 9, 2026 into the dock at the Swan Island Wildlife Management Area on Perkins Township which is on Swan Island in the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer)
RICHMOND — Ferry service on the Kennebec River to the state-owned Swan Island is set to resume Saturday, four years after the U.S. Coast Guard shut it down after declaring it unsafe.
Cheers of “woohoo!” went up at the state landing for the island when Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, announced the return of the ferry service to a crowd of other state legislators, town officials, residents, and volunteers who have advocated and worked to return the service.
Cluchey and others established a working group to try to return ferry service to improve public access. This year, the service is funded by about $24,000 from the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, which officials said will pay for the service to run through the beginning of September. Whether the service continues in some form beyond that will depend on funding from the state Legislature or other sources.
“I’m thrilled,” said Terri Blen Parker, who spent her childhood on the island with her grandparents, while her grandfather was a game warden there. Parker has written two books about the island. Parker said the year the ferry service shut down, she’d sold both her kayaks, and was unable to get to the island.
Cluchey said it was a significant loss to the community in both not having easy public access to the island, and in the loss of business from visitors to the island.
The ferry between the state’s landing and Swan Island will run weekends only and will be operated by a licensed captain with a vessel certified to carry six passengers. Capt. Gary Smith plans to make four round trips on his River Runner 2 watercraft, taking visitors to the island where they can see deer, a wide range of waterfowl, grassland birds, bald eagles and jumping fish.
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The service returns four years after the U.S. Coast Guard shut it down citing there was no record of the vessel, which had been in service for seven years, being inspected as a small passenger vessel. It was deemed “a significant unsafe boating condition and an environmental threat to the port and navigable waterways.”
A key piece of the Coast Guard’s concern was the state Inland Fisheries and Wildlife worker piloting a state-owned aluminum watercraft the few hundred yards across the river did not have a captain’s license to operate a passenger vessel.
Officials said the problem has been resolved for now by hiring Smith and his boat to provide ferry service while the state’s former ferry is being used to transport department workers to the island.
Both the ferry ride, as well as visits that can include camping for up to three nights in a row on the island with 7 miles of trails and 10 campsites with Adirondack lean-to shelters, are free.
A view of the Kennebec River and Dresden in background from Swan Island Wildlife Management Area is captured Thursday at the southern tip of Swan Island in the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
The state had operated a small ferry connecting the island in the Kennebec River to Richmond for decades.
Since then, various efforts were made, with limited success, to provide alternative, privately run service to the island, which is part of the Steve Powell Wildlife Management Area at the head of Merrymeeting Bay. People could still visit the island with their own boats. But access and use by the public has been limited without the ferry service. Visits to the island have dropped from up to 2,400 a summer to around 1,500 since ferry service stopped.
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Capt. Gary Smith stands beside the new ferry, his boat River Runner 2, Thursday at the Swan Island Wildlife Management Area on Perkins Township which is on Swan Island in the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
The island is home to the former Perkins Township, and is a wildlife management area that attracts thousands of migrating waterfowl along the Atlantic Flyway, and is home to a large deer population, as well as eagle nests, with seven of the nine nests on the island having eggs in them this year, said Connor White, a regional biologist responsible for overseeing the island, with the help of two other wildlife workers.
“This is a special day, because Swan Island is a special place,” Cluchey said at the gathering Thursday.
Nate Webb, director of the department’s wildlife division, said Swan Island is Maine’s most unique wildlife management area, with its combination of protected, managed environment that attracts such an array of residential and migrating animals, and recreational trails and campsites for people.
Rep. Sally Cluchey, D-Bowdoinham, speaks Thursday at a news conference in Richmond. The return of complimentary ferry service to Swan Island in the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden was announced at the event. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
Unlike the previous state ferry, which ran from the landing in Richmond a few hundred yards across the river to a pier on Swan Island, Smith’s will run from the landing in Richmond around the northern tip to the eastern side of the island, dropping passengers off at a small set of docks at the island’s campsite.
Officials said the pier has deteriorated and needs substantial repairs to safely accommodate passengers again.
Reservations for the ferry can be made by calling 207-504-2628, or through the website swanislandferry.com. People may ride the ferry without reservations, if space is available, Smith said.
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Selectman and longtime Richmond resident Marilyn Gritzkewitsch said she’s glad to have the ferry back, but noted the expected increase in use of the island and more visitors to Richmond has both positive and negative impacts.
Capt. Gary Smith, far right, pilots the new ferry, his boat River Runner 2, Thursday on the Kennebec River between Richmond and Dresden. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
She agreed with Cluchey, in that town businesses such as Annabella’s, the Old Goat, and Main Street Dairy Treat should see a boost in business. But more people recreating in the area could increase demand for services from the town.
“I’m glad to see it’s back, but we have to be mindful of added costs to the municipality for this,” Gritzkewitsch said. “But it’s a fantastic place, it really is the gem everyone says it is.”
A group of local residents, Friends of Swan Island, also advocated to state officials that the ferry service be returned.
A view of the Kennebec River from Swan Island Wildlife Management Area captured Thursday at the southern tip of Swan Island between Richmond and Dresden. (Joe Phelan/Staff Photographer) Purchase this image
The yellow-topped boat is a tritoon, a pontoon boat with a third tube in its center. Smith said the boat can carry more than six passengers, and he is licensed to operate boats carrying more than that. But the watercraft, which he drives up from Bath, is licensed to carry only that many.
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Tagged: camping, kennebec river, maine department of inland fisheries and wildlife, swan island
Keith Edwards covers the city of Augusta and courts in Kennebec County, writing feature stories and covering breaking news, local people and events, and local politics. He has worked at the Kennebec Journal. More by Keith Edwards
