COVERED BRIDGE SPANS MEMORIES; RENOVATED STRUCTURE AT BURFORDVILLE IS REDEDICATED

BURFORDVILLE -- The historic Burfordville Covered Bridge does more than span Whitewater River.

It spans plenty of memories like those of 90-year-old Byrcha Allen Stevenson of Jackson.

She grew up in Burfordville. On Saturday, she returned for the 1 p.m. rededication ceremony of the 130-year-old structure, which sits next to a 19th century grist mill and is part of the Bollinger Mill State Historic Site.

The bridge and the mill stream once were featured attractions for area youths. Children swam and dived in the Whitewater. They fished and camped along its banks.

"This was our entertainment," recalled Stevenson after she walked across the renovated bridge. "It was the waterfront," she said.

Jim McClard, 77, and Jerry Dockins, 69, grew up in the Burfordville area. They were both baptized in the Whitewater River, just downstream from the dam and mill.

"We walked across it and drove across it," said Dockins.

He recalled the inside of the wooden bridge often was covered with hay that had fallen off farmers' wagons.

The covered bridge served as everything from lover's lane to a shaded shelter from the summer heat. Some children used the bridge as a diving board.

State Rep. David Schwab of Jackson cut the red ribbon to officially reopen the span to pedestrians. He, too, had memories of the place.

"We used to fish here a lot," he recalled.

Charles Hutson, Cape Girardeau County circuit clerk, also took a walk into the past Saturday.

"We played hide-and-go-seek in the mill up there," he said after crossing the bridge.

An estimated 30 covered bridges spanned rivers and creeks in Missouri from the 1820s to the end of the century. Today, only four covered bridges survive, all of them owned by the state.

Burfordville Covered Bridge is the oldest. Work began on the structure in 1858, but the Civil War delayed completion until around 1868.

The bridge was part of a toll road that extended all the way from Cape Girardeau to Greenville. There once was a toll house near the bridge.

Jack Smoot, administrator of the historic site, said typically there were toll booths every six miles along such gravel roads.

As late as the early 1900s, the Burfordville route was still part of a toll road. Smoot said farmers eventually revolted and tore down the tollgates because they felt the charges were unfair.

A flood in 1986 moved the bridge slightly off the pillars on one end, forcing the state to close the bridge to vehicular traffic.

Repeated flooding along the river damaged the wooden structure.

In 1991, the state closed the bridge to all traffic because wooden timbers in the trusses were rotting, making it unsafe.

But thanks to a $600,000 renovation project, the span is once again open to foot traffic.

Smoot said the bridge may be reopened to vehicular traffic, but only on special occasions.

The bridge, he said, was built to handle horses and wagons, not today's vehicles.

Smoot said he understands people's fondness for the old bridge.

"People remember coming here when they were young," he said. For them, Saturday was a walk down memory lane.