The Mill Creek Bridge is located north of

Cherokee, Iowa Cherokee is a city in Cherokee County, Iowa, United States. The population was 5,199 at the 2020 Census, down from 5,369 in 2000. It is the county seat of Cherokee County. History Cherokee was laid out as a town in 1870, and was named for the ...

, United States. It spans Mill Creek for . On June 24, 1891, a disastrous flood along the

Little Sioux River The Little Sioux River is a river in the United States. It rises in southwestern Minnesota near the Iowa border, and continues to flow southwest for U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map ...

and its tributaries wiped out nearly every bridge in

Cherokee County Cherokee County is the name of eight counties in the United States: * Cherokee County, Alabama * Cherokee County, Georgia * Cherokee County, Iowa * Cherokee County, Kansas * Cherokee County, North Carolina * Cherokee County, Oklahoma * Cherokee Co ...

. The following month the county board of supervisors signed a contract with the George E. King Bridge Co. of

Des Moines Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moines, ...

for 17,650 to replace the bridges. This

Pratt truss A truss bridge is a bridge whose load-bearing superstructure is composed of a truss, a structure of connected elements, usually forming triangular units. The connected elements (typically straight) may be stressed from tension, compression, or ...

bridge was fabricated by the

King Bridge Company The King Iron Bridge & Manufacturing Company was a late-19th-century bridge building company located in Cleveland, Ohio. It was founded by Zenas King (1818–1892) in 1858 and subsequently managed by his sons, James A. King and Harry W. King an ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. It and a similar span over Mill Creek near Larrabee are the only two that remain. This bridge was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1998. A modern concrete span, built just upstream in 2006, now carries the road. The old bridge is closed to vehicular traffic.

References

Bridges completed in 1891 Buildings and structures in Cherokee County, Iowa Truss bridges in Iowa Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Iowa National Register of Historic Places in Cherokee County, Iowa Pratt truss bridges in the United States Metal bridges in the United States {{Iowa-bridge-struct-stub