Skip to main content

Short Covered Bridge

Image
By

For a state that has the most covered bridges of any state west of the Mississippi River, Oregon still has plenty of unique surprises to be found among its inventory of covered bridges. One of these covered bridges is the Short Covered Bridge, located just off of US Highway 20 just west of Cascadia State Park near the community of Foster in eastern Linn County. It's also one of a handful of covered bridges located along current or historic alignments of US 20, with the Chitwood Covered Bridge being another covered bridge located along US 20 in western Oregon.

Built in 1945, the Short Covered Bridge is the last remaining covered bridge that spans over the South Santiam River and is one of a few remaining covered bridges in Linn County to feature a roof made of wooden shingles. The Short Covered Bridge is far from short, spanning a total length of 173 feet across the South Santiam River. When the covered bridge was built, the bridge was known as the Whiskey Butte Bridge, but over time, it was renamed for a long time area resident by the name of Gordon Short. Visitors to the bridge may spot by ducks, deer and other animals hanging out around the bridge, and during the summer, fishermen on or under the bridge try to catch fish from the waters of the South Santiam River. On the early June after that I stopped by the bridge, I saw neither animals nor fish, just a parking lot along US 20 where I could park my car.

One thing that caught my eye as I was checking out the Short Covered Bridge was located on the other side of US 20. There was a fake ghost town built across the street called the Short Bridge Ghost Town. The fake ghost town is a bit of a roadside attraction that is as much of an art exhibit as it is a homage to the Old West of yore.

The Short Covered Bridge is found along Over the Rivers and Through the Woods Scenic Byway that crosses Linn County from Brownsville to the Cascades on OR Highway 228 and US 20, along with the historic corridor of the Santiam Wagon Road as well. This allows you to visit plenty of historic and scenic places in the area. The bridge is certainly worth the short stop to see.


Short Covered Bridge

South Santiam River
Short Bridge Ghost Town



How to Get There:



Sources and Links:
Linn County Covered Bridge Tour - Travel Oregon
Short Covered Bridge - Bridgehunter.com
The Short Bridge - Covered Bridge Society of Oregon
Short Covered Bridge spans South Santiam near Cascadia State Park - The Oregonian

Labels:
Location: Short Covered Bridge, 27116 High Deck Rd, Foster, OR 97345, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Did Caltrans just kill the G26 cutout US Route shields?

By
The US Route System was formally created by the American Association of State Highway Officials during November 1926.  Through the history of the system the only state to which has elected to maintain cutout US Route shields has been California.  The G26 series cutout US Route shields have become a favorite in the road enthusiast hobby and are generally considered to be much more visually pleasing than the standard Federal Highway Administration variant.  However, the G26 shield series appears to have been killed off on January 18, 2026, when Caltrans updated their Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices.  This blog will examine the history of the US Route shield specifications in California and what is happening with the 2026 changes.  The blog cover photo is facing towards the terminus of California State Route 136 and at a G26-2 specification US Route 395 shield.  In the background Mount Whitney can be seen in the Sierra Nevada range.   ...
2 comments
Read more

May 2023 Ontario Trip (Part 3 of 3)

By
  Over the years, I have made plenty of trips to Ontario, crisscrossing the southern, central and eastern parts of the province. Living in Upstate New York, it's pretty easy to visit our neighbor to the north, or is that our neighbor to the west? Ottawa is one of my favorite cities to visit anywhere in the world, plus I've discovered the charm of Kingston, the waterfalls of Hamilton (which is on the same Niagara Escarpment that brings us Niagara Falls), the sheer beauty of the Bruce Peninsula, and more. But I hadn't explored much of Cottage Country. So I decided to change that, and what better time to go than over Memorial Day weekend, when the daylight is long and I have an extra day to explore. On the third and final day of my trip, I started in Huntsville and made my way through Muskoka District and Haliburton County, passing by many lakes along the way. I stopped in towns such as Dorset, Haliburton and Bancroft before making a beeline down to Belleville and then over th...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ghost Town Tuesday; Nichols, FL

By
A couple years ago I spent a lot of spare time exploring phosphate mining ghost towns in the Bone Valley of Polk County, Florida.  One ghost town in particular called Nichols on Polk County Route 676 west of Mulberry caught my eye due to a relative lack of documentation on ghosttowns.com. Nichols was created in 1905 during the early phosphate mining boom in the Bone Valley region.  For the time Nichols was unusual since it had company housing in the Nichols Mine site and private residences outside the gate.  Nichols is only about two miles west of Mulberry which probably made it a somewhat reasonable commute even by the wonky standards of the early 20th Century.  Most of the Bone Valley region was relatively remote which made commuting or homesteading impractical which is why there are so many ghost towns in the area.  The company housing section of Nichols was phased out and abandoned by 1950. The Nichols town site is largely abandoned and could "possibl...
4 comments
Read more