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Georgia-Florida ferry service refloats
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ST. MARYS — Two neighboring cities on either side of the Georgia-Florida line are looking for a tourism boost now that a ferryboat is shuttling passengers between them for the first time in nearly a century.

The Cumberland Sound Ferry Service opened several weeks ago, offering tourists round trips three days a week between St. Marys in Georgia's southeastern corner and Fernandina Beach, Fla., less than 8 miles away.

Janet Brinko, director of the St. Marys Convention and Visitors Bureau, said both cities already notice a difference.

"We're already seeing more foot traffic in St. Marys and Fernandina Beach," Brinko said. "Business has increased at downtown shops and restaurants."

A passenger steamer called The Hildegarde was the last passenger ferry to travel the Cumberland Sound between the cities. It made its final trip in 1916.

Amelia River Cruises and Charters, which launched the new ferry service in late August, has a family connection of sorts to the passenger cruises of the early 20th century. Co-owner Kevin McCarthy's wife had a great-granduncle, Walton Goodbread, who was captain of The Hildegarde.

"A little less than a hundred years later, we're going back into the family business," McCarthy said.

The ferry runs Thursday through Saturday and can carry 49 passengers. McCarthy said he's seeking permission from the Coast Guard to increase the limit by 50 additional people. Round-trip tickets cost $15.

Chugging along at 11 mph, the ferry makes the trip between the cities in about 45 minutes to an hour — just a little longer than it takes to drive the meandering 29-mile highway route between them.

McCarthy says passengers get a narrated tour during the trip, which passes federally-protected Cumberland Island and dolphins playing in the coastal waters.

"The boat ride is going to be the biggest part of the experience," McCarthy said. "These two little towns are mirror images of each other. There are great shops, great restaurants and great museums. You can do the two towns in one day."

Fernandina Beach resident Jackie Wilking was among the first passengers to take the ferry trip and said she'll likely use it again for quick jaunts to St. Marys rather than go by car.

"It certainly will be more enjoyable," Wilking said, "and less gas."

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Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
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Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
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