In planning my September, 2022 adventure I found information on the beautiful 1880 bridges in Cottage Grove, Oregon. They are listed on the National Historic Register around this charming town of Cottage Grove over rivers and creeks. This is the home of the largest collection of Covered Bridges in the West, and known as the “Covered Bridge Capital of the West.”
When I got to Cottage Grove I started following the signs of the 20 mile rambling route around the towns biggest attractions; six Covered Bridges and one Swinging Bridge. If I’d named the new modern built “Swinging Bridge,” I’d have named it the “ Bouncy Bridge!” It was a fun bouncy walk across. I was told the original Swinging Bridge (which actually swung when walked upon) was destroyed in a flood.
The 78 foot long Chambers Railroad Covered Bridge, #7, is a four-leaf-truss structure is the largest Railroad Covered Bridge West of the Mississippi.
For me signs were difficult for me to follow because of the distance between them. I used Google Maps to locate the Covered Bridges outside of the city of Cottage Grove without any problems.
The tour route is actually designed as a Covered Bridge Scenic Bikeway, which can also be hiked.
The coming-of-age movie, Stand By Me was filmed in the summer of 1985 in Oregon, with the railroad scenes in Cottage Grove. This is the bridge that the boys crossed at the beginning of their adventure. It is an extremely short walk from the Mosby Creek Bridge to this iconic railroad bridge. The railroad track that went over this bridge is now the Row River (bike and hike) Trail.
Cottage Grove, Oregon is more than just Covered Bridges. It is one of my favorite towns I visited in 2022 and it has very nice sidewalk cafes I can vouch for.
You can easily spend a day or two relaxing in this little town.
The Lowell Covered Bridge, above is 165 foot long, over the Willamette River near Lowell, Oregon. I was driving from Cottage Grove to the Crater Lake National Park, Friday, September 23, 2022 on OR-58 and stopped to photograph this covered bridge. There are still 54 Covered Bridges in Oregon. I did not want to spend the time on this trip to photograph all of them!
In 1925, Oregon had over 450 Covered Bridges. In 1915 virtually all new bridges were covered timber truss bridges. By 1925 consciences; longevity was considered to be at least 50 years for Douglas Fir Timber Covered Bridges in Oregon.
Click on the photo of the Coos Bay (Conde McCullough Memorial) Bridge to view dozens of other bridges from my drive down the coast of the Pacific Ocean from Vancouver, B.C. to San Francisco.
Click the below Photo to view Uncle Jack’s next adventure Crater Lake, Oregon.
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