The owner of the historic White’s Ferry in Poolesville has offered to donate the ferry and its assets to Virginia’s Loudoun County, after Montgomery County Executive Marc Elrich (D) declined the donation and instead offered $3 million to resolve the dispute over the ferry’s closure.
“We spoke to Loudoun County leaders, and they are open to considering the donation,” Chuck Kuhn, CEO of JK Land Holdings and owner of the ferry, said in a press release Friday. “This will make it easier to work through zoning issues since the exemption on the Virginia landing side — owned by Rockland Farms — has now expired.”
The offer is the latest move in an ongoing legal saga that started in 2020 when the ferry, long used by commuters, closed due to a legal dispute between private landowners.
According to Friday’s press release, the Kuhns have had “positive preliminary discussions” with Loudoun County Administrator Tim Hemstreet, County Attorney Leo Rogers and Loudoun County Supervisor Caleb Kershner about the proposed donation. The release also said the ownership wants to work with Rockland Farm.
Glen Barbour, a spokesperson for Hemstreet, told Bethesda Today in an email Friday afternoon that Loudoun County “has remained interested in any solution that would result in the resumption of ferry service,” but at this time, there are no plans for Loudoun County to operate the ferry.
A spokesperson for Elrich was not immediately familiar with Kuhn’s offer to Loudoun County when reached via text message by Bethesda Today on Friday afternoon. Libby Devlin, the owner and manager of Rockland Farm, did not immediately respond to Bethesda Today’s request for comment on Friday afternoon.
Elrich offered a $3 million subsidy to the owners of the properties on the Maryland and Virginia shores of the Potomac River on April 11 as an incentive to reopen the ferry, according to a letter sent to the owners.
“The demise of the White’s Ferry was not caused by natural disaster, lack of patronage, or some other external factor,” Elrich wrote in the letter. “Rather, the ferry stopped due to litigation and the inability of two private parties to work in good faith to establish a reasonable business arrangement so that this vital service could be sustained.”
The ferry, which transported commuters across the river between Poolesville and Leesburg in Loudoun County, was established in 1786. According to Elrich’s office, the ferry carried an estimated 600 to 800 vehicles across the river daily until December 2020.
According to a 2021 White’s Ferry Operations Study by the Montgomery County Department of Transportation (MCDOT) and the Loudoun County Department of Transportation and Capital Infrastructure, re-opening the crossing would have a positive estimated economic impact of more than $9 million annually.
“With each passing year, the connections between the communities served by the ferry have weakened, local businesses have suffered, family connections have been strained, and thousands of additional miles of travel have been required by those who need to travel between eastern Loudoun County, Virginia, and western Montgomery County,” Elrich wrote.
In December 2020, the ferry ceased operation due to a legal dispute between then-ferry owner Herb Brown and Rockland Farm in Virginia, which owns the Virginia landing site.
The 2020 court case, Rockland Farm LLC, et. al. v. White’s Ferry Inc., established that “no public landing exists on the Virginia shoreline at White’s Ferry Road and the ferry is prohibited from landing at that location in Virginia.” With no public landing, White’s Ferry had to negotiate with Rockland Farm, which wanted to charge a toll for every car that drove on its land in order to use the ferry.
Kuhn and his wife, Stacy, own the ferry and the Maryland shoreline of the operation, which includes the store and café White’s Ferry Grill. The Kuhns purchased the ferry and the Maryland landing site in February 2021 from Brown with the hopes of quickly reopening the ferry.
In April 2024, Kuhn offered to donate the ferry to the Montgomery County government to ease the reopening process. However, Kuhn’s proposal stipulated that his donation did not include the land, also under his ownership, that would be required to access and operate the ferry, according to an April 11 press release from Elrich’s office. Elrich did not accept the offer, noting that “the compensation requested for the land use drove the cost significantly higher than would be feasible for Montgomery County taxpayers to shoulder.”
In an April 11 email to Bethesda Today, JK Land Holdings said the company was “very surprised and disappointed” that Montgomery County did not accept the donation.
“The whole goal in offering to donate the operation to Montgomery County last April was to get it open in the most expeditious manner possible,” the statement said. “In fact, that was the goal when JKLH and the Kuhn family originally purchased the defunct ferry in 2021. They recognize that this special crossing serves as an important local economic engine and piece of history.
Elrich’s letter offered the $3 million subsidy to the two parties to “incentivize a compromise.”
“After years of fruitless effort, I have concluded that the only way the ferry can restart is through your action,” Elrich wrote. “I implore you to look past the fraught history of this disagreement and take action to restore this vital service.”
Elrich is recommending the expenditure of the funds as a new project in the county’s Capital Improvements Program (CIP), according to the letter. The subsidy includes $1.5 million in state aid recommended by Gov. Wes Moore (D) and approved by the Maryland General Assembly in the state’s fiscal year 2026 budget. Elrich is matching the state funds with $1.5 million from the county and Town of Poolesville funds. The funding is contingent on County Council approval.
If the funding is approved by the County Council, Elrich has stipulated that the two private owners must come to an agreement by July 1, 2026, to receive the funds. Elrich also offered the support of MCDOT in the reopening until July 1, 2026. The funds may be used for property rights, equipment purchase or other capital investment needed for the ferry.
The county and state governments have no authority over the land since it is privately owned and cannot force the two landowners to come to an agreement.
Devlin told Bethesda Today in an email on April 11 that she’s interested in providing ferry service.
“I’ve been in talks with Montgomery County for some time now regarding reopening a ferry. I’m willing to continue discussions with them and the Maryland owner if he is also willing,” Devlin said. “However, in our meeting this morning with Montgomery County, Mr. Kuhn refused any further discussion.”
In 2020, Rockland Farm posted on Facebook that it sued White’s Ferry as a “last resort” after the companies couldn’t come to an agreement over the ferry’s use of the Rockland property.
“White’s Ferry took the position that it did not need to pay to use Rockland’s land to operate its private business,” the farm posted.
Negotiations between the parties have failed multiple times over the last few years, including in March 2023 when Chuck Kuhn announced that his joint $1.1 million bid for the Virginia landing site — a bid “well above” the land value, he alleged — was rejected by the owners of Rockland Farm.
“The reason that we turned down the $1.1 million combined offer from Loudoun County, Montgomery County and Mr. Kuhn is that Rockland Farm will not accept a flat fee for its Virginia landing,” Devlin wrote to Bethesda Today at the time. “We favor a volume-based fee that varies with the amount of traffic encroaching upon our land and will work with either county to accomplish that.”
She added that Rockland Farm previously made an offer to Montgomery and Loudoun counties for a permanent easement on the Virginia landing in exchange for a volume-based fee.
