Summer of Giving

Before there was a bridge…
there was a ferry.

In 1912, 23-year-old Tommie Barfield – later known as the “Queen of Marco” – persuaded Lee County officials to establish a ferry across the Marco River. For more than 25 years, every car, every visitor, and every opportunity arrived by way of that single-car ferry. All that remains today are two iron gears.

Weighing around 400 pounds, these gears raised and lowered the ferry’s ramp with every crossing — day after day, year after year — quietly doing the work that made Marco Island accessible and allowed our community to grow.

Now, we have a rare opportunity to put these gears back to work.

The Marco Island Historical Society plans to conserve and install these historic ferry gears in the Museum’s Pioneer Era gallery—where they will keep history turning for future generations.

This is where you come in.

Your gift will help preserve the gears, create a permanent exhibit, and bring this remarkable story to life.

And as a lasting tribute, every donor — at any level — will be recognized on an acknowledgment panel in the Pioneer Era gallery, alongside the gears themselves.

To be included in this special opportunity, please make your gift by August 10, 2026.