Volume 8, Number 1 - Fall 1982
Application for Placing the Old Swan Creek Bridge on the National Register of Historic Places
Text and Research by Viola Hartman and Lynn Morrow
Sponsoring Organization:
The White River Valley Historical Society.
The Swan Creek Bridge is one span of an original double span highway bridge across the mouth of Swan creek. It was constructed by the Canton Bridge Company, Canton, Ohio, and installed in 1914. As a pin-connected through Pratt in design, "it is representative of perhaps the most common type of early twentieth century truss bridge."1 In 1934 with the construction of a new concrete bridge at the mouth of Swan Creek, the two iron truss spans were moved; one to lower Big Creek and one just one and one-half miles upstream. Since 1934 the Swan creek bridge has consisted of "nine panels at 18’4" or a 165’ bridge span."2 A detailed bridge evaluation report of contempory conditions and ratings is attached.
Footnotes
1: T. Allan Comp and Donald Jackson, Bridge Truss Types: a guide to dating and identifying, Nashville: AASLH, Local History Technical Leaflet 95, 1977.
2: Bridge Evaluation Report, Harrington and Cortelyou, Inc., Consulting Engineers, July 22 and September 16, 1980.
The Swan creek bridge is significant as it represents the most common type of early twentieth century truss bridge, none of which have received enrollment on the NRHP in Missouri; it is significant as one of the last surviving landmarks associated with the "old" county seat town of Forsyth; it is significant as a symbolic land-mark along a major transportation corridor upon which the regional, commercial influence of the city of Springfield was built; and is significant as a model and the first choice of the Forsyth Chamber of Commerce in the promotion and development of a preservation ethic in Taney County.
The antebellum route south from Springfield to the historic trade of the great bend of the White River led through the Swan creek valley and to Forsyth. This trade corridor succeeded to a prior Indian trading route which was part of a much larger route during the 1820's which connected the White River country with Ste. Genevieve, St. Louis and eastern markets. The local travel began at the Delaware Towns on James River, southwest of Springfield, led down James River to White River, down White River to the mouth of Swan creek where a trading rendezvous and trading posts had been established. Then for the return trip travel criss-crossed Swan creek to the north until it crossed Bull creek valley, Finley creek valley and reached Delaware Towns. Following Indian removal and the founding of Springfield in 1831 local commerce continued southward to the mouth of Swan creek until the establishment of an official post road from Springfield to Forsyth in the 1840s. Principal north-south commerce from the upper White River country continued along this corridor until the 1870s, at which time increasing population and freighting roads along the ridge tops began to diversify the commer-
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cial routes. But even then the southern leg of the three or four primary northern trade routes, including traffic to the Chadwick railhead, still included a crossing at the ford where the present Swan creek bridge is located. In addition to the heavy travel across Swan creek at this site, the Reynolds/Forsyth mill site and Casey cemetery (where northern sympathizers during the Civil are buried) are nearby.
The demolition and removal of Forsyth during 1950 in the wake of Bull Shoals dam construction left few structural remnants of the century-old county seat town. A few buildings were moved to new Forsyth, including the masonic hall. The stone jail remains on a hillside, a metal loop secured in limestone rock used as a tie-down for steamboats is visible during low water, and the Swan creek bridge stands at the ford on Casey road. Like Greenville in Wayne County and Linn Creek in Camden County, Forsyth citizens have an historic and emotional attachment to the few surviving artifacts which tangibly represent the town that their forebearers built. The Swan creek bridge, constructed during the height of small town foundings and development in the United States, is the most dramatic structural remnant of the former town’s past.
The truss-pin bridge is one of many structural types taken for granted in the twentieth century (only three others survive in Taney County). As the century progresses toward its end the truss-pin bridge has become an artifact of the past worthy of preservation. The Taney County Court and citizen promoters are anxious for that preservation to proceed, augmented with the status of NRHP enrollment. If enrolled the Swan Creek Bridge will at present be Missouri’s only such structure on Missouri’s register.
The Swan creek bridge promotion by the Chamber of Commerce is the first in a series of locally significant landmarks which are targeted to raise the conscious awareness of central Taney County’s resident and tourist population to historic preservation. Subsequent work in that direction depends in part on the experience with the Swan Creek Bridge.
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