Madison County, Iowa’s bridges pale in comparison with Oregon’s. Starting in the 1850’s, Oregon pioneers began building wooden bridges to more easily traverse rivers, streams and creeks. Built mostly from native Douglas Fir, they added “houses” over the bridges to protect them from the damp Oregon climate and extend their life span. Most of these covered bridges were built between 1905 and 1925 when there were 600 of them.

Today Oregon has the largest number of covered bridges in the West and one of the largest nationally. The modern spotlight is on bridges designed and built for motorized traffic. There are 51 working covered bridges in Oregon today.

One December day we spent a family day out visiting every covered bridge we could find and some we stumbled on East and a bit South of Eugene. Here are several we toured. When I took these shots it was to get the names/dates of the bridges in but some of them are not legible. I have provided information about the ones I could ID.

Parvin Bridge, 1921, near Dexter, OR, spans the Lost Creek.

Pengra Bridge, 1938 near Jasper, OR, spans Fall Creek.

Oregon is very proud of her historic covered bridges. They are beautiful as well as functional because they are well maintained.

Wild Cat Bridge, 1925 near Walton, OR, spans Wildcat Creek

Lowell Covered Bridge, 1945, near Lowell, OR spans Middle Fork Willamette River. This is one of the prettiest bridges anywhere.  It is not a working bridge.

Office Bridge, also known as Westfir Covered Bridge, 1944, near Westfir, OR. Most of Oregon’s covered bridges are white but this one was an unexpected exception. You can walk and drive through it but it is mostly an attraction as the road only goes to a park/picnic area.

Come stay with us at www.umpquahaven.com and spend a day exploring some of Oregon’s historic covered bridges that are not far away!