The Weisner Covered Bridge was southwest of
Catlin, Indiana
Catlin is an unincorporated community in the northwest corner of Raccoon Township, Parke County, in the U.S. state of Indiana
Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-mo ...
. The single-span
King Post
A king post (or king-post or kingpost) is a central vertical post used in architectural or bridge designs, working in tension to support a beam below from a truss apex above (whereas a crown post, though visually similar, supports items above fro ...
covered bridge structure was built by Joseph A. Britton in 1908 and destroyed by flood in 1957.
History
Construction
Joseph A. Britton built this bridge the same year that he also built the nearby
Zacke Cox Covered Bridge and
Harry Evans Covered Bridges. It would hold the title as the shortest covered bridge in Parke County until a year later when the
Phillips Covered Bridge
The Phillips Covered Bridge is southeast of Montezuma, Indiana in Parke County, Indiana and crosses Rocky Run, also known as Big Pond Creek. Unlike the rest of the bridges of Parke County, it is a single span King Post bridge structure, having n ...
would tie it for the title.
During construction, teams of horses and wagons would bog down in
quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid
A colloid is a mixture in which one substance consisting of microscopically dispersed insoluble particles is suspended throughout another substance. Some definitions specify that the particles must be dispersed in a ...
that lay along the creek bed. To fix this, small herds of cattle were led back and forth across these areas to pack the sand down and make it firm enough to support the horses and wagons.
Destruction
On June 27 and 28, 1957, the remnants of
Hurricane Audrey
Hurricane Audrey was one of the deadliest tropical cyclones in U.S. history, killing at least 416 people in its devastation of the southwestern Louisiana coast in 1957. Along with Hurricane Alex in 2010, it was also the strongest June hur ...
met up with a front that laid across central Indiana. The resulting rain, 6 to 10 inches, produces record floods across central Indiana and east-central
Illinois
Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...
.
Rockville reported 10.15 inches. Big Raccoon Creek report the highest levels since the floods of 1875. Across the area six people were drowned, 1,282 dwellings damaged, 125 businesses were flooded, dozens of highway and railroad bridges were washed out and a million acres of crops were flooded, with thousands of acres of already cultivated land flooded to a depth of 6 feet or more.
The Weisner Covered Bridge was washed away when a small dam above the bridge gave way in this massive rainstorm. This quickly filled the Weisner Creek valley with flood water, washing the bridge away and threatening the residents of a nearby house that feared the flood waters would sweep it away also.
Since then a larger flood control dam, constructed by the
Corps of Engineers, has been constructed upstream from the former site of the Weisner Covered Bridge. However, a study of the new dam reports that if it were to fail and collapse the resulting flood waters would sweep down the Little Raccoon Creek valley and damage houses in
Jessup.
With this bridge and the
Moore Covered Bridge both destroyed in the same flood and an economic downturn in the county, the idea for the
Parke County Covered Bridge Festival
The Parke County Covered Bridge Festival is a fall festival which takes place in nine communities in Parke County, Indiana, United States. It celebrates the county's 31 covered bridges, and is attended by more than 2 million people each year. It b ...
was born as a way to increase county income and preserve the county's unique covered bridges.
See also
*
Parke County Covered Bridges The covered bridges of Parke County are well-known tourist attractions in Parke County, Indiana, United States, which touts itself as the "Covered Bridge Capital of the World". The county claims to have more covered bridges than any other county in ...
References
{{Parke county lost covered bridges
Former covered bridges in Parke County, Indiana
Bridges completed in 1908
1908 establishments in Indiana
Wooden bridges in Indiana
King post truss bridges in the United States
Road bridges in Indiana