Covered Bridges of Oregon-Lane County

 Covered Bridges of Oregon-Lane County


History

Cottage Grove has earned the title as the "Covered Bridge Capital of the West." There are six beautiful Covered Bridges within a few minutes of downtown.
Building dates of the bridges range from 1920 to1987. In the earlier days of construction, steel and concrete was hard to come by and since timber was more accessible, the bridges were built from locally-cut timber and then covered to keep the rain from aging them. The older bridges are a standing testimony to the skilled craftsmen living in the area.  http://cottagegrove.net/history/covered_bridges/index.html


I love covered bridges, the architecture, the different stories of how they were built, and the peaceful easy feeling that one has when standing on one with rushing water running under it.  So one bright day in March we got in the car to head south to Cottage Grove, snap some pictures and get out in the sun to refresh our vitamin D levels!   This trip was surely more about the journey than the destination---

We traveled around the "loop" from downtown Cottage Grove out to Dorena Lake and back again.  In between we managed to find a wonderful burger joint-The Pink House, looks kinda scary but the food was excellent. We got to see Dorena Lake for the first time, the loop brings you all the way around it. The highlight of the trip was a stop at Rob and Debbie Kisslers' house on the Row river, Debbie was out of town but we had a great visit with Rob and were treated to a stroll around their property-what a beautiful place.  I will continue to explore the covered bridges of Oregon over the years, so far I can knock off the 6 bridges I visited that day.