Simeon Otis established a ferry connection between the steadily growing community of Mulat in Santa Rosa County to a landing near the present-day intersection of Olive Road and Scenic Highway. With the advent and proliferation of the automobile in the 1910s, the ferry provided locals and travelers access across Escambia Bay. Otis constructed a twenty-two by sixty-five-foot gas-powered barge, capable of carrying eighteen automobiles in one trip. The ferry, the Missing Link, began service on October 11, 1916. The Pensacola Journal regularly advertised the ferry’s weekly schedule, highlighting its twenty-minute trip as the “shortest route with Pensacola, Mobile, and all points south” across the bay.
A former sawmill operator in Mulat, Otis envisioned turning the Mulat area into a winter resort with the ferry as a focal and selling point. Nestled along the bay and bayou in the pinewoods, Otis converted his old sawmill employee housing units into fully-furnished and attractive accommodations for travelers. Otis believed fishing, hunting, and the simplistic nature of the community attracted city visitors. The continued growth of Mulat increased the popularity of the ferry service, and encouraged Otis to refit the ferry with steam power and even consider constructing a second ferryboat.
Otis completed the steam power overhaul of the Missing Link on May 22, 1918. The ferry operator exclaimed that the steam-powered engines improved the vessel’s reliability. Despite the ferry’s upgrades, Otis sold the Missing Link to W. C. Rhoades, who moved the Santa Rosa landing to Floridatown, a small community north of Mulat, in August 1918. However, the ferry’s new route lasted less than a year and the landing shifted back to Mulat. The Pensacola Journal published the “Santa Rosa-Escambia Ferry” schedule in April 1919. The Automotive Blue Book, an early twentieth-century travel guide, recommended the reestablished service as the preferred east and west route between Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in 1921.
The Missing Link landing on the Escambia side continued to receive and embark passengers into the mid-1920s. Additionally, the area around the landing hosted a multitude of recreational opportunities, including picnicking, sunbathing, and swimming. The ferry service shut down shortly after the construction of the causeway between Ferry Pass and Pace in 1926. The development of Mulat significantly declined after the new causeway routed traffic away from the town. Today, private residences and docks occupy the sites of the Missing Link’s original landings. Additionally, the fate of the ferry is unknown. A ferry appeared in Otis’s will in April 1929 , but it is unclear whether it is the Missing Link.
Recommended Readings:
“Ferry at Mulat, on Escambia Bay, Early Prospect.” Pensacola Journal, August 11, 1916. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1916-08-11/ed-1/seq-3/
“Mulat as a Winter Resort.” Pensacola Journal, November 18, 1917. Accessed April 30, 2017. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn87062268/1917-11-18/ed-1/seq-11/
Featured Image:
Dorothy Burrow Papers, 1840-1973. Box 2, Folder 11: Photographs – Pensacola, (1915-1942?), UWF Special Collections, John C. Pace Library. – Dated August 25, 1918, this photo shows the Missing Link ferry approaching its landing on the Escambia County side of the route.
Author: Spenser Andrade
Researcher ID: 0000-0002-7044-8500