The Rolling Stone Bridge 1915
Due to the recent Day of Labor federal holiday, my weekend gave me an additional day of slumber. Jenni and I are not accustomed to a lot of slumber, so we hit the highways and byways and even the graveled country ways of Putnam and Parke County in search of a few of the Worlds Greatest concentration of Covered Bridges. With well over 30 to choose from, but not nearly as many hours to seek them out, we hit eleven of those nearest to Indianapolis. The first four were actually in Putnam County. The first two near Bainbridge Indiana were the Rolling Stone (pictured above on the right) and Bakers Camp Bridges built in 1915 and 1901 respectively. Then two more further south on either side of Greencastle were the Dunbar and the Oakalla Bridges. We left home at 10:00 am and by the time we had knocked the first four off our list of musty must sees it was already quarter after one. All four were in use and in good shape and not at all musty that was just an illusionary tactic I took to further the dialog.
With the weather cooperating to its fullest and the sun bringing a cloudless 90° to terra firma we enjoyed a thirty minute drive to the next water crossing, the Big Rocky Fork Bridge (not pictured), built in 1900 by J.J. Daniels. Big Rocky Fork's condition was not as good and it was by passed by a new bridge and no longer open to anything but foot traffic.

The 173 ft long Dunbar Bridge built 1880 North of Greencastle.
Read the historical marker below at the end of today's post.
From there it was a trek to the Conleys Ford Bridge built in 1907. Heading North and East just a spit and whistle we came to the Mansfield area which looks like a place Stephen King might have envisioned. It was in full tourist trappings, and appeared to be deserted, except for a half dozen bikers who were overheard saying that in the second week of October you couldn't move because of the crowds. I believe I will avoid this "place" in October. The bridge itself is a wonder, extremely long and the second oldest (1867) on our labor day tour.
Our next mission was to get into Rockville for a dinner break. Even though the bridges them selves were free for the viewing the Sun was exacting a toll. By the bank sign in Rockville we learned that it was now 94° and we decided to cut short our tour and just hit three or four more bridges on the way back. The next three on the list are the Crooks, the McAllister (where I spotted a giant Sunflower field), and the Neet Bridge which has a neat little mall around it and is also closed to all but foot traffic. The Crooks Bridge (1856) has a bit of a lean to it and is cabled to a giant tree. I drove through as Jenni stood outside and captured it on video.


The Bridgeton Bridge, built 2006 Bridgeton Indiana.
The very last bridge was Bridgeton's Bridge. A new construction bridge in a town not unlike Mansfield (except that there is a population of corporeal cohabitants). The Bridgeton bridge was built in 2006 (150 years after Crooks') and is very nice. Then it was a quest for speed and we hit major highways and eventually an interstate to make it back to the World Headquarters by 6:45.
This is our first trek west to the Covered Bridge Capital of the World. Parke County is home to some 31 or so covered bridges, and at least 6 of the 11 bridges we encountered are east and south of Parke County, so we have our our road tripping future ahead of us for some time to come. We also have to head south again and check out the Moscow Bridge in Shelby County Bridge which was taken away by tornadoes on June 2nd of this year but is being rebuilt even as I write.
Chuck Pace ©2008 
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