For centuries, ferries in this area were used primarily to transport agriculture such as livestock, as well as people and automobiles. On April 20, 1763, William Herbert Sr. entered into an agreement with Col. John Chiswell and his partners, John Robinson and William Byrd after traveling from Bristol, England, to the Colony of Virginia and serving a seven-year term of employment. His daily duties included supervising Chiswell's Mines, later known as the Wythe Lead Mines. By 1770, Herbert had served with the Virginia militia and lived in a large family log cabin in the Poplar Camp area of Wythe County. County records from 1770 show that he had established a ferry across the New River, the only one in the region at that time. The route later became the center of a major legal dispute that lasted until 1885, when it was awarded to Thomas Jackson, builder and operator of Shot Tower. Jackson's descendants ran the ferry until a bridge was built across the river in 1931.