Over the River and Through the Ozarks

In my earliest teens, there were only two things to do: go through puberty, and play Oregon Trail on the Apple II.

While hunting buffalo and getting dysentery on the 'Trail with your digital pioneer family, you often faced the biggest challenge on your way to the West: river crossings. Unless the ferry suddenly started accepting delicious buffalo meat, there's no way you could afford that. "Do you want to ford the river?" Hell yes, let's do this. Inevitably, your poorly-caulked wagon capsized, all your oxen drowned, and the surviving family members died of dysentery. A macabre way to go.



Fortunately, bridges over rivers have become high fashion since 1848. The fun part about the older spans is that they're among the few relics that you can drive a car onto. Genuine drive-through history, and the Ozarks have them in spades.

Powell Bridge - Big Sugar Creek

[Powell Bridge on Bridgehunter.com]
[Joplin Globe - Group Saves Historic Bridge]

A WWI-era truss held together by rust, Powell Bridge has been marked for replacement once already. A concern local effort preserved it (for now), but it's worth visiting before time or progress final claims it. The bridge requires a short detour off highway Missouri-E in Powell, which prevents it from having the same star power as the more recognizable War Eagle Mill Bridge of similar age. However, the light traffic allows you to walk the wooden deck and absorb a serene view of the turquoise-colored Big Sugar Creek.


Lanagan Bridge - Indian Creek

[Lanagan MO-EE bridge on Bridgehunter.com]

Just outside Lanagan, highway Missouri-EE crosses Indian Creek on a narrow, ornate truss built in 1928. Not the oldest around, but it's a lot more visually appealing than the flat concrete blights that have replaced most of these. Didn't crossing a river used to be an oxen-losing adventure? If you're going to conquer the landscape, give it some presence with girders, rivets, and steel like the good old days.


Ozark Bridge - Finley Creek

[Ozark Riverside Drive Bridge on Bridgehunter.com]

The single-wide truss over Finley Creek in Ozark, Missouri, has seen 100 years of service, and is still in regular use. It's a nice part of the setting at the Riverside Inn next door, which has served some of the best catered food I've ever had, shaming countless rubber banquet meals of functions past. The Ozark Mill bridge nearer town is also a classic, but the fried chicken is better if you drive a few miles further.


War Eagle Creek Bridge

[War Eagle Mill Bridge on Bridgehunter.com]

For years the War Eagle bridge has been the backdrop to everything from crafts fairs to Ferrari meets, and is a staple of Ozark tourism. The bridge is an airy steel truss with wooden deck dating to 1907, and sits next to the even older War Eagle Mill. The building has been a functional water-wheel mill for the better part of 200 years, old enough to have been burned down in the Civil War (the true litmus test of anything "historical" in the South). Unless you visit during the hellish craft fair season, it's a great drive from either direction, and picturesque without fail.


Bridges? Because they beat caulking your car shut and fording it the hard way.

[More photographs here]