Mill and covered bridge photograph   Save
Ohio Guide Photographs
Description: Caption reads: "Mill and covered bridge. Unable to give county." This could be the Beaver's Mill & Old Covered Bridge in Highland County, on Rocky Fork Creek. In the 1800's and the early 1900's, Highland County was home to at least six different water powered mills along the Rocky Fork, which were important centers in rural life for grinding flour, cutting lumber, carding wool, and weaving blankets. The 122 foot long truss Beaver Mill covered bridge was built in 1872 and torn down in 1955 for a new road project. Ohio has a large number of covered bridges, falling second only to Pennsylvania in quantity. Within the state of Ohio, Fairfield County and Ashtabula County lead the state in containing the most original covered bridges. Most covered bridges in the U.S. were built between 1825 and 1875, with the first Ohio covered bridge built in 1829 in Eaton in Preble County. Bridges were covered to protect the structural wooden tresses from the elements, giving the bridges a longer life span of approximately 100 years as opposed to 20 years for an uncovered bridge. At one point in time, Ohio had approximately 3,500 covered bridges, but that number has diminished to approximately 138 covered bridges today. View on Ohio Memory.
Image ID: SA1039AV_B01F17_034
Subjects: Water mills--Ohio--History; Covered bridges--Ohio
Places: Ohio