Lane County Covered Bridges

A covered bridge is not covered for looks, or to shelter travelers from the rain. It is covered to protect itself. The strength is in the wooden trusses along the sides, and in Oregon's wet climate a bare Douglas fir truss left open to the weather might rot out in a decade. Give it a roof and siding to keep the timbers dry, and the same bridge could stand for generations.

So Oregon, timber-rich and rain-soaked, became one of the great covered-bridge states, with hundreds of them in the early twentieth century. Most of the rest of the country tore theirs down as concrete and steel took over. Lane County held on to more than anywhere in the West, which is why a cluster of these barns still leans over creeks here, long after they went out of fashion.

Cottage Grove and the country just around it hold the richest concentration, enough to earn the town its Covered Bridge Capital title. You can string them together on a marked driving tour of roughly twenty miles, or trace a longer covered-bridges scenic bikeway if you would rather pedal the back roads.

The standouts are close together. Currin Bridge is the photographer's favorite, the only one in the county with red sides and white portals. Mosby Creek Bridge, built in 1920, is the oldest still standing in Lane County. And Chambers Bridge, rebuilt after years of decay, is a genuine rarity: the last covered railroad bridge west of the Mississippi River, built to carry timber trains rather than cars.

The bridges thin out but keep coming as you head northeast toward the Cascades. Around Fall Creek and Lowell, several more span the water in a tight group, easy to link on a short loop.

The showpiece up that way stands in the tiny mill town of Westfir: the Office Covered Bridge, painted barn red, the longest covered bridge in Oregon, with a separate covered walkway built alongside the road deck so people on foot never had to share the lane with logging trucks. It is a fitting end to a drive, a reminder that these were working structures first and postcards second.

This was Kalapuya country long before the bridges, valley people who tended the land with fire and moved with the seasons across the Willamette basin, and whose descendants are enrolled today with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde and Siletz. The bridges belong to a later chapter, the homestead and timber decades when small crews raised them by hand over the local creeks.

They are best seen slowly, on a self-guided loop with a map from Cottage Grove or Eugene, stopping to walk through the ones now closed to traffic. Late spring through fall gives you dry back roads and long light; after a hard rain the gravel approaches can be slick. Most sit within a few minutes of the next, so an unhurried afternoon can take in a handful.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is a place we chose through independent editorial review, never a paid placement.

Lane County has around twenty historic covered bridges, more than anywhere else west of the Mississippi River, and most are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. They are scattered across the countryside south and east of Eugene, spanning creeks and rivers, and together they make the area a covered-bridge capital worth a leisurely day of exploring.

By car, on one of the well-marked self-guided driving loops. The Cottage Grove tour, for example, strings together several bridges on a short, scenic loop around Dorena Lake that takes well under an hour of driving, plus stops. The routes are signed and easy to follow, and you can do as few or as many bridges as you like, getting out to walk across or photograph the ones that catch your eye.

A favorite is the Office Bridge in the little town of Westfir, the longest covered bridge in Oregon at 180 feet. Built in the 1940s to carry logging trucks to a mill, it is unusual for having a separate covered walkway alongside the roadway for pedestrians, the only covered bridge west of the Mississippi built that way. Painted a cheerful red and white, it is a striking stop.

The bridges are charming year-round, but the drives are especially lovely in autumn, when the surrounding trees turn color, and in spring when the countryside greens up. The tours are gentle, low-key outings, so pick a clear day, bring a camera, and enjoy the pace of the back roads and small towns along the way.

It varies by bridge. Some still carry road traffic and can be driven through, while others are preserved for foot traffic only and invite you to walk across and admire the old timber framing. Either way, they are wonderful to photograph and to step inside of, and the driving loops make it easy to experience several different ones in an afternoon.