Poole's Mill Bridge is a historic wooden

covered bridge A covered bridge is a timber-truss bridge with a roof, decking, and siding, which in most covered bridges create an almost complete enclosure. The purpose of the covering is to protect the wooden structural members from the weather. Uncovered woo ...

crossing over Settendown Creek (tributary of the Etowah River) in Forsyth County,

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, built in 1901. It is 96 feet long. Circa 1820,

Cherokee The Cherokee (; chr, ᎠᏂᏴᏫᏯᎢ, translit=Aniyvwiyaʔi or Anigiduwagi, or chr, ᏣᎳᎩ, links=no, translit=Tsalagi) are one of the indigenous peoples of the Southeastern Woodlands of the United States. Prior to the 18th century, t ...

Chief George Welch constructed a

gristmill A gristmill (also: grist mill, corn mill, flour mill, feed mill or feedmill) grinds cereal grain into flour and middlings. The term can refer to either the grinding mechanism or the building that holds it. Grist is grain that has been separat ...

, a

sawmill A sawmill (saw mill, saw-mill) or lumber mill is a facility where logs are cut into lumber. Modern sawmills use a motorized saw to cut logs lengthwise to make long pieces, and crosswise to length depending on standard or custom sizes (dimensi ...

, and a simple open bridge at the site. Welch continued to run and maintain the mills and bridge until the

Cherokee removal Cherokee removal, part of the Trail of Tears, refers to the forced relocation between 1836 and 1839 of an estimated 16,000 members of the Cherokee Nation and 1,000–2,000 of their slaves; from their lands in Georgia, South Carolina, North Caroli ...

in 1838. The land that held the bridge and mills was won in the

land lottery A land lottery is a method of allocating land ownership or the right to occupy land by lot. Some examples are: * Moses' allocation of Promised Land territory to the Israelite tribes by lot, as mandated in Numbers 26:55 and 33:54 and effected by h ...

by John Maynard of Jackson County,

, who sold the land to Jacob Scudder. Following Scudder's death in 1870 the mill and bridge were bought by Dr. M.L. Pool. A cotton gin was added at the site in 1920, but cotton was largely abandoned by local farmers when the poultry farming was introduced. The mill was left in disuse by 1947 and was burned by vandals in 1959. The original bridge that stood at the site was washed away in a flood in 1899. It was decided that a new bridge using the Lattice truss bridge style would be built on the site. The design called for wooden pegs to be driven into holes bored into wooden beams to hold the design together. The beams were cut on site at the saw mill, but the holes were bored in the wrong positions. At this point the construction was taken over by Bud Gentry, who oversaw the redrilling of the holes. The misdrilled holes can still be seen in the bridge's beams. In the mid-1990s the bridge began to sag and a revitalization effort began. A support pier was built in the middle of the creek. During this revitalization private citizens also donated land in the area to allow the creation of Poole's Mill Park.

References

External links

Poole's Mill Park
- Forsyth County
Poole's Mill Covered Bridge
historical marker {{Registered Historic Places Bridges completed in 1901 Buildings and structures in Forsyth County, Georgia Covered bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Georgia Land Lotteries Wooden bridges in Georgia (U.S. state) Parks in Georgia (U.S. state) Protected areas of Forsyth County, Georgia Transportation in Forsyth County, Georgia National Register of Historic Places in Forsyth County, Georgia Road bridges on the National Register of Historic Places in Georgia (U.S. state) Lattice truss bridges in the United States

See also

References

Further reading

External links