I have lived all my life in the Del Rio area and I knew all the Victors, Guy, Cyrus, Bill and their father, John I. Victor. Condon started his trading post in the early 1880s if not earlier. The store and saloon quit operating when Condon died. But the hotel, livery barn and blacksmith shop remained in operation for several years after his death.

I do not know how many freight teams crossed the Condon ferry but the busiest years were the late 1880s to 1895 when supplies were being freighted to Ruby, Conconully, and other mining towns in the upper Okanogan County.

Del Rio is about 10 miles southeast of Condon’s ferry. I live about two miles from the ferry site and Weber Bros. owns the land where Condon’s settlement was located. The old ferry cable broke and fell into the Columbia River during the flood of 1948. The river level rose so high that trees, houses and other debris lodged against the cable and broke it. About 150 feet of the cable still remains on the Douglas County side.

There is nothing left of the old site of Condon’s trading post. When Chief Joseph dam was built, we were asked to remove the old buildings that still remained. The ferry had not operated since July 4, 1929, when it sank on the Okanogan County side of the river. Normally the site is covered by Chief Joseph dam’s backwater though at low levels the foundations still can be seen.

There was a post office at Condon’s ferry, named Condon. It was established on February 11, 1889, and discontinued May 28, 1895. The ferry itself was about 18 feet wide and 50 to 55 feet long. I believe it would hold two 4-horse teams and wagons or 20-25 head of cattle. After Condon died, people by the name of Flaherty ran the ferry. Later operators were Bryan, Frank Cotter, and Clice and Byron Vance, who were operating it when it sank in 1929. It was a row ferry until 1886 or 1887 when Condon built the cable ferry. Before the row ferry, a freighter would remove the wheels from his wagon, lash canoes to the wagon box, and paddle it across, while his stock swam.

Condon was killed January 21, 1895, on the Hollis King horse ranch in Douglas County. I have in my possession the bullet that killed him. It was taken from his body by a veterinarian, George Wilson of Wilbur, as Dr. Yount was not available at the time. I also have in my possession a copy of Condon’s last will and testament, written at Condon’s ferry January 19, 1895, two days before his death.

The January 25, 1895, Wilbur Register informed its readers of the death of the far-famed Wild Goose Bill Condon, a Columbia river ferryman and one of the most colorful characters connected with Okanogan County history.

He had been born Condit in Newark, N.J., in about 1835 but left home at 17. After mining in California, he trekked to Walla Walla, spending the next 20 years as a packer.

It was during this period that Condit came across a flock of tame geese he thought were wild and shot several. The owner-by some accounts a woman-came storming onto the scene. Profusely apologizing, Condit paid for the victims.

Thereafter he was usually known as "Wild Goose Bill." Also, for whatever reason, he came to prefer "Condon" to Condit.

Condit had been married first to a Coeur d’Alene Indian woman, then to a niece of Chief Moses. Both were gone when he induced Millie Dunn, seeking her second divorce, to manage his household. Condit, then about 60, became infatuated with Millie, 19. But after 18 months with the old frontiersman, Millie removed herself to a range cabin occupied by a young cowboy, Jack Bratton. Another wrangler, 20-year-old Barton Park, of a respected Davenport family, was staying temporarily in the same cabin.

Having scrawled a will and strapped on his Colt six-shooter, an inflamed Condit on January 21, 1895, rode to the cabin some 12 miles east of the ferry to retrieve his woman. Alerted by rumors, Bratton had prudently departed.

Burstin in, Condit asked if Millie would return. No. There followed a staccato of gunfire, Condit shooting Millie twice in the arm, Park opening up with a revolver and than a rifle. Simultaneously, the two men killed each other, Condit’s body dropping in the doorway he had just entered.