White’s Ferry used to shuttle several hundred cars between Poolesville and Loudoun County, Virginia, every day.

But an apparent impasse between private property owners on both sides of the Potomac River has shuttered the ferry for the last five years.

Area residents are so fed up that several dozen gathered on Tuesday afternoon for a protest along the river as the windchill dipped below 15 degrees.

They say the loss of White’s Ferry — which had operated since the late 18th century — has complicated commutes, cut off small businesses from potential customers and further isolated Poolesville, a rural town of fewer than 6,000 residents.

Community organizers and elected officials who gathered Tuesday to mark the anniversary of the ferry’s closing shamed the property owners, whom they accused of robbing residents of a long-standing and essential service.

“I wish we didn’t have to be here,” Jim Brown, president of the Poolesville Town Commissioners, said during Tuesday’s gathering at the Maryland landing for White’s Ferry. “We shouldn’t be here. We should be taking a boat across the river.”

After brief remarks from Brown and Montgomery County Council members Evan Glass and Andrew Friedson — both of whom are running for county executive — a handful of organizers and officials launched into a performance of Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.”

They played the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future, recounting White’s Ferry’s more recent history and chastising the greed of the deadlocked landowners.

“They’re holding all of us hostage,” said state Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, who played the ghost of Christmas present.

State Del. Linda Foley and County Council member Marilyn Balcombe also attended the event.

Ferry talks falter

White’s Ferry closed in 2020 amid a legal dispute between the ferry’s former Maryland-based operator and the owners of Virginia’s Rockland Farm, where the ferry used to land.

After a judge ruled there wasn’t a public landing site for the ferry on the Virginia side, the two parties entered negotiations but couldn’t reach an agreement.

Chuck Kuhn, a Virginia-based business executive, bought the ferry and the Maryland landing site in 2021 with hopes of reopening it quickly. But he’s been unable to ink a deal with the Rockland Farm owners, siblings Libby Devlin and Peter Brown.

Kuhn didn’t respond to an email request for comment.

Both Devlin and Brown declined to comment.

In early 2025, Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich put up a $3 million incentive to the two parties to reach an agreement and reopen the ferry, though the offer hasn’t yet swayed anyone. It expires July 1, 2026, when the county’s new fiscal year begins.

Kuhn has also tried to offload the ferry operations to local governments.

He first offered to donate the ferry business to Montgomery County, but local officials declined.

Kuhn then presented a similar proposal to Loudoun County, but officials there haven’t bitten.

A spokesperson for Loudoun County, Glen Barbour, said in a statement that he had “no information about Loudoun County accepting any donations.”