Jackson County: Shieldstown Bridge
One of the interesting things when we started this adventure journal were the number of people we know from counties throughout the state who said the same thing: Good luck finding something interested to do in that county
Jackson County was one of those counties. Truth be told, the visitors center website didn’t list very much in the way of interesting sites or places to go. But this past weekend, during the beginning of an 8 day heat wave, we needed something to do, so we set out to find something interesting in Jackson county.
Of the various attractions the only ones that jumped out were the covered bridges. So, that’s where we set our sights.
The closest bridge for us to drive to was the Shieldstown bridge. According to information I found:
Shieldstown Covered Bridge crosses the East Fork of White River, in Section 32, Township 6 North, and Range 5 East, beside County Road 250 East, northeast of Brownstown, Jackson County. This double span Burr Arch Truss structure has a length of 331 feet, or 355 feet including the 12-foot overhang at each end, with a portal clearance 16 feet wide by 12 feet 6 inches high. Built in 1876 by Joseph J. Daniels, the road bypassed this structure after 1977. This bridge was listed as #14-36-02 in the 1989 World Guide.
So on Sunday, July 17th, after about 40 minutes of driving, and a wrong turn due to mislabeled county roads, we found our bridge.
The road had been changed at some point in the past 20 years or so to go around this bridge, and from the outside you can see why. It looked like it was going to fall apart.
Once we parked and got inside though, the inside of the bridge was actually in really nice shape.
Isaac’s favorite part was throwing rocks out the side and into the river below.
There was a second bridge listed that we could go visit, but it was another 30 minutes yet away from our house, and it was built by the same person and looked pretty much identical. We decided one bridge would be enough.
On the way back we figured we’d try and find a few other fun things to do.
We stopped at the Sonic and got some drinks. Their intercom system, credit card system, and basically all other electronics were down. We used this as an opportunity to let Isaac push as many buttons on the kiosk as he wanted.
As we left Sonic, my car GPS showed a park like area not too far away, so I figured we would drive and check it out and see what kind of park it was.
Turns out, it was the perfect kind of park – plenty of play areas for a kid. So we stopped and explored Gaiser Park.
After we finished at the park, we packed up and made the 30 minute drive home. Another fun afternoon adventure in the bag.