![]() Walter Sharp, in 1908, pushed the span record five feet further with the H. (As the 66-foot-span stone arch bridge outside Augusta in Butler failed months after completion, it did not offer much competition to Cowley’s records.) Two years later, the McCaw Bridge was built by Abe Finney and, with a span of 70 feet, created a sensation, which was even felt, at least to some degree, across the state. Cowley, in 1904, built the 64-foot-span Goodnight Bridge, over Grouse Creek, which Walter Sharp, the builder of it, claimed at the time was the longest single arch span in the state. The county’s second bridge (Dunkard Mill Bridge) was considered to be the largest stone bridge in the state, and this was only the beginning. Not surprisingly, Cowley County set several records in its arch bridge construction. Cowley set out to build large stone bridges across some of the large streams of the county, and it is arguably the sheer size of these stone arch bridges which led to the county being the stone arch bridge capital of Kansas. While the Timber Creek Bridge started the movement toward stone arch bridges, the Dunkard Mill Bridge confirmed it, and stone arch bridges rapidly began to appear across the county. Despite this brief mishap, the bridge was immensely successful, and was celebrated by a large picnic attended by over 2000 people. After a flood immediately following the completion of the bridge with the resultant carving of some form of a new channel around the bridge, an additional 40-foot-span arch was added to increase waterway. This bridge was said to be the largest stone arch bridge in Kansas, consisting of three 50-foot-span arches. Cowley’s Record BridgesĪfter the first stone bridge the county had built, a single-arch 36-foot span over Timber Creek built in 1901 (already a sizable structure, by Butler County standards), Cowley set out to build the monolithic Dunkard Mill Bridge over the Walnut River near Arkansas City. Cowley County, on the other hand, built massive, daring structures without hesitation, which, with a few exceptions, were successes. To be sure, Butler County did actually build a record stone arch bridge with a span of 66 feet outside Augusta over the Whitewater River (about where US 54 is now) but this attempt proved to be a miserable failure, for the bridge was more or less destroyed by a flood months after completion. Butler County appears to have mostly used arch bridges for culverts, using the iron truss bridge for larger streams. ![]() When comparing Butler’s bridges with Cowley’s, we find that, while most of Butler’s bridges consist of a single, small span, barely over a culvert in size, Cowley County has several stone bridges that are absolutely massive, a fact not lost on people at the time. Comparing Butler’s stone arch bridges with Cowley’s stone arch bridges yields a clue to Cowley’s title of the Stone Arch Bridge Capital of Kansas (a title, by the way, that has its origins over a century before the current date.) Nor was Cowley unique for early pioneering in stone arch bridges, for Marion County was the main pioneer in stone arch bridge building in Kansas, and Cowley began building stone bridges after Butler County decided to follow Marion’s example, and Greenwood County followed Butler’s example. It is not quantity of stone arch bridges, for Cowley’s neighbor, Butler County, has over 20 stone arch bridges on the road network. So, what makes the Cowley bridges unique among the 200+ other stone bridges in Kansas? Why Cowley Bridges are Unique With 18 stone arch bridges listed on the county’s stone arch bridge brochure, these old structures are also a notable part of the county’s tourism. ![]() Cowley County, Kansas, boasts of being the stone arch bridge capital of the state.
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