35,040 trips a year in each direction is the figure Illinois gives the federal ferry census for this crossing, which works out to about 96 crossings a day each way, day and night, all year. That is the Kampsville Ferry: the piece of Illinois Route 108 that crosses the Illinois River between Kampsville in Calhoun County and the Greene County bank near Eldred, run by the Illinois Department of Transportation without a fare or a timetable.
IDOT owns exactly two ferries, and both carry traffic over the Illinois for nothing. This is the northern one. On the west bank it lands where IL 108 meets IL 100, the Great River Road; on the east bank it hands drivers back to IL 108 heading inland. There is no ticket office, no reservation and no schedule to consult, only a barge, a towboat and a line of cars on the ramp.
What does interrupt it is the river. The Federal Highway Administration's history of the crossing gives the two exceptions plainly, ice and unusually high water, and the lower Illinois produces both. In late September, with the Hardin gauge more than four feet below flood stage and no notices posted, the crossing was simply running.
Around the clock, every day, until ice or flood says otherwise
Service hours as published by IDOT and the Federal Highway Administration, read on September 24, 2026; no closure notice was posted on that date IDOT — Ferry Services · 2026-09-24
Nothing to pay, but a limit on what may board
Nobody takes money at either landing. IDOT lists the crossing as a free service it owns and operates, and the figures it gives the federal ferry census show no fare revenue at all: the boats are paid for entirely by the state. It is a highway link that happens to float, and it is budgeted like one.
The restriction is on size rather than price. IDOT's permanent restriction list marks the ferry No Permit Loads: a truck that needs an oversize or overweight permit to be on the road cannot use it and must find another way over the river.
| Car, pickup, truck or motorcycle, with passengers | Free |
Confirmed free by IDOT on September 24, 2026 IDOT — Ferry Services: free service, IDOT operated · 2026-09-24
Riverfront Kampsville on the west bank, a Greene County ramp on the east
No building or street number marks either landing. Both are the ends of IL 108, and the lines of waiting cars form on the road itself.
Kampsville Ferry, west landing
The Calhoun County ramp is on the Kampsville waterfront, right where the ferry's IL 108 runs into IL 100, the Great River Road. The village, fewer than 400 people by the Federal Highway Administration's count, starts at the top of the ramp.
There is no booth, gate or waiting room; drivers simply line up on the approach. Kampsville is also home to the Center for American Archeology, whose excavations at the Koster site between 1969 and 1979 documented thousands of years of settlement along this stretch of river.
Kampsville Ferry, east landing
On the Greene County side IL 108 carries on east from the ramp toward Eldred. The coordinates here come from the federal ferry-terminal dataset; IDOT itself publishes a single point for the whole ferry, in the middle of the river.
In the June 2019 flood, when IL 108 itself was under water near Hurricane Creek, IDOT kept this landing reachable over a patchwork of mostly gravel Greene County roads, a reminder that on this bank the only alternatives are local roads.
A quarter mile of the Illinois, Calhoun bank to Greene bank
Roughly 1,200 feet of water separate the ramps in a straight line, and the charted ferry route across the current comes to a little under a quarter of a mile. The census gives the average trip as seven minutes each way.
Calhoun County sits between the two rivers as a 37-mile peninsula, and the ferry is what ties its middle to the Greene County side; IDOT's other free boat, the Brussels Ferry, works the county's southern end. For now it is the only crossing on this site's Midwest page; its nearest relative here is Alabama's battery-powered boat at Gee's Bend, another river ferry owned by a state transportation department.
Reading the river before you head for IL 108
- Watch the Hardin gauge
The Weather Service gauge at Hardin is the useful number. Flood stage is 25 feet; road flooding around Kampsville starts in the low-to-mid 30s.
- Ice stops the boat
A frozen river is one of the two published reasons the ferry stops. IDOT publishes no calendar or ice criterion, so a winter trip needs a status check first.
- No permit loads
Oversize and overweight loads that need a state permit are not allowed on the ferry. Plan those trips around it.
- Night crossings are normal
The boat runs through the night, crewed on shifts around the clock, so a late arrival on IL 108 does not mean a detour.
- Check Getting Around Illinois
IDOT sends drivers to its statewide traveler-information map for closures. It is an interactive map, so open it in a browser rather than expecting a simple status line.
- A number for the crossing
IDOT's ferry data gives (618) 653-4518 for the Kampsville Ferry. District 8's office in Collinsville is on 618-346-3100.
Why a 37-mile peninsula still depends on boats
The Federal Highway Administration's account of the ferry starts from geography. Calhoun County is a long, rugged, thinly populated strip between the Mississippi and the Illinois, with almost no industry, and for drivers the boat is the quickest way over the Illinois. The county has been here since January 10, 1825, and the river was a travel route long before that: Marquette and Joliet spent a night in July 1673 at Perrin's Ledge, just north of Kampsville, on their way down the river.
The state keeps investing in it rather than replacing it. In 2018 IDOT bought four new engines, four transmissions and two marine generators for its two river ferries, and its District 8 program for 2026 to 2030 carries $2,674,000 of improvements at the Kampsville and Brussels landings. The job itself is a state post: IDOT advertises for ferry operators who must hold a U.S. Coast Guard license for the Illinois River, and for deckhands who direct the cars onto the barges and close the gates, on shifts that cover the full 24 hours.
The limit of the arrangement showed in June 2019, when the river at Hardin crested above 40 feet. With IL 108 flooded near Hurricane Creek, IEMA and IDOT reopened access to the ferry only from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m., over detours on Greene County gravel roads, with two ferries working at once and motorcycles and heavy trucks turned away.
Two towboats and two barges, as the federal ferry census lists them
Kampsville crossing questions, with the river in mind
Does the Kampsville ferry run at night?
Yes. IDOT operates it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and staffs it on shifts around the clock. The only published exceptions are a frozen river and unusually high water.
At what river level does the crossing close?
IDOT does not publish a threshold. The National Weather Service's gauge at Hardin, where flood stage is 25 feet, lists the road impacts: at 34.29 feet IL 100 north of Kampsville floods and closes, and at 38.6 feet IL 100 begins flooding at the IL 108 junction by the ferry. On September 23, 2026 the gauge read 20.44 feet.
Before driving over, how can I tell it is running?
IDOT refers drivers to the traveler-information map on Getting Around Illinois, and its flood notices have pointed to the District 8 account, @IDOTDistrict8. IDOT's ferry data lists (618) 653-4518 for the crossing itself.
Can a wide load or an overweight truck use the ferry?
No. IDOT's permanent restriction list marks the Kampsville Ferry as No Permit Loads, so anything that needs an oversize or overweight permit has to cross the river elsewhere.
How many vehicles fit on a trip?
IDOT does not publish it, but the barges it reports to the federal ferry census are rated for 18 vehicles and 149 passengers each. The census gives the average crossing as seven minutes.
Why is there a ferry here and not a bridge?
The Federal Highway Administration's explanation is the county itself: Calhoun is a 37-mile peninsula with rugged ground, few people and almost no industry, where water transportation has remained the practical option. With traffic the census puts at roughly 290 vehicles a day in each direction, the state has kept the boat.
How did the ferry cope with the 2019 flood?
It kept going on reduced terms. On June 16, 2019 IEMA and IDOT reopened access daily from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. over Greene County detours, because IL 108 was flooded near Hurricane Creek; two ferries ran at once, and motorcycles and trucks over 25 tons were barred.